THE CULTUEE OF THE GEAPE. 301 



there will be any thing better produced, for cultivation 

 under glass, than the best of the old kinds named above. 

 For large collections, almost any number of kinds may 

 be added. Th« Garden of the Luxembourg, at Paris, 

 numbers about five hundred varieties, many of them 

 worthless, and a great number only differing very little 

 in foliage, or in the time of ripening. 



Luxembourg Oa/rdens, Paris. — " Grape vines occupy 

 a prominent part in this horticultural school, the kinds 

 being very numerous, and the plants taking up a consid- 

 erable proportion of the ground. Here are now assem- 

 bled all the varieties of vine known to be cultivated in 

 France, or, I .may say, in Europe. To the best of my 

 recollection, nearly three hundred varieties are named, 

 and as many more without names, which are regarded 

 by M. Bosc as possessing characters sufficiently marked 

 to entitle them to rank as distinct.* In general, there is 

 only one plant of each variety ; but the Chasselas de 

 Fontainebleau is an exception, there being a long row of 

 this on one side of the garden. It is the favorite variety, 

 and has been justly styled the ' raisin de table par excel- 

 lence,' of the French. At Fontainebleau, the vines grow 

 on a light sandy soil, and the grapes are sweeter than 

 those produced on a heavy soil. 



The varieties of table grapes are few in. number, per- 

 haps scarcely exceeding twenty ; the great mass of kinds 

 consisting of sorts cultivated in the vignobles, in the 

 various departments of France, in Italy, Spain, and Ger- 

 many. Many^of these approach in character very near 



* Under Napoleon, Chaptal collected in this garden fourteen hundred 

 Tarieties. 



