BERBERIDS. 411 
mountains of the Caucasus are the native country of the Vine; 
the actual limits of cultivation in Europe have been more exactly 
defined in the “ Atlas de Physique Végétale” of M. H. Tricholet, 
who devotes a map to the limits of vine culture on the globe. In 
this map a red line, drawn from Cape Finisterre along the coast 
of Spain, across France, leaving Paris a little to the north, across 
Germany, the northern shores of the Black Sea, to the Caucasus 
and Caspian Sea, forms the northern limits of cultivation for 
wine; the Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora, and the southern 
shores of the Black Sea, being its southern limits. A bold dash of 
green colour, which covers the whole of the western hemisphere, 
from 30° south latitude to the parallel of New York sud the west 
coast of Africa, indicates the range of the wild grape; while a 
delicate yellow tint, extending over a great part of Arabia, Asia 
Minor, and south and east of the Caspian, as far as China and 
the seas of Japan, marks the range of country over which the 
grape is cultivated for its fruit only, either dried or in its green 
State. 
The Vine requires a temperate climate, but its prosperity 
depends, not upon the mean temperature of the country, so 
much as upon the heat and length of summer. The heat should 
be sufficiently intense to ripen the fruit; and this requires 
that it should endure far into the autumn in order to ripen the . 
gTapes, 
There are from twelve to fifteen species of the Vine, but the 
Varieties produced by cultivation and cross impregnation are 
mnumerable. Greater differences are the result of soil and situa- 
tion ; gentle sloping hills, well isolated, with a south and westerly 
aspect, upon which the sun’s rays rest the whole day, are the best 
localities; and the influence of temperature is such that it is 
quite usual to obtain upon the same hill grapes of the most oppo- 
Site qualities, according to the variable heights. As to the 
Mfluence which the composition of the soil exercises, it appears 
to be more a question of bouquet than of quality in the wine. 
short, excellent wines are produced from soils of the most 
°pposite quality. The best crus of Burgundy are the produce of 
an argillaceous chalky soil ; those of Champagne proceed from a 
“oil eminently calcareous. The vines of the Hermitage ripen 
