Z\)c £rrasurp of 33ntarm. 



;vitt 



skill, to plant them. ' The monks in a.d. 1140 

 planted a vineyard at Edmondsbury in 

 Suffolk, and "William of Malmesbiiry says 

 that vineyards were possessed by barons 

 as well as by monks. ' Winton, afterwards 

 named by the Saxons "Winchester, or the 

 City of "Wine, was so called because there 

 was the best vintage in Britain.' (Johnson, 

 On the Grape Vine.) 



There is abundant evidence to prove 

 that vineyards were formerly plentiful 

 in many parts of this country, and that 

 considerable quantities of wine were made 

 in good seasons. But although our land is 

 rich enough for the nourishment of the 

 vine, and indeed over rich, causing too 

 much luxuriance for the climate, the cul- 

 tivation of the grape for wine must always 

 be attended with comparatively unprofit- 

 able results. This will evidently appear 

 from the following extract from Reports 

 of Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and 

 Legation on the Effect of the Vine Disease 

 (1S59) :— ' A proprietor of an extensive vine- 

 yard at Huesca, in the provinceof Aragon, 

 assured me that the drought last summer 

 was so great, and the vintage so plentiful, 

 that it would have been easier for him to 

 irrigate his vineyards with wine than with 

 water. He also stated that in order to 

 make room for the new wnne, he offered to 

 sell that of a former vintage at about five- 

 pence English for a little less than four 

 gallons, but finding that he could not 

 even get one halfpenny the gallon, and 

 there being a scarcity of wine-jars or vats, 

 he was obliged to throw away the whole of 

 that year's vintage. It is not, however, 

 the province of Aragon alone that pro- 

 duces such a superabundance of wine ; 

 many of the wine-districts of old Castille 

 are equally prolific. At Aranta del Duero, 

 for instance, wine appears to be at times as 

 cheap, and water as scarce as at Huesca; for 

 I was informed by an English gentleman 

 that, on passing through that town a few 

 years ago, he saw some bricklayers at work 

 mixing their mortar with wine instead of 

 water, and he stated that this was not an 

 unusual occurrence.' 



When we take these facts into considera- 

 tion, and reflect on the immense quantities 

 of wine that can be produced at an exceed- 

 ingly low price in those countries that have 

 a climate suitable for the vine, we must 

 readily come to the conclusion that any 

 attempt to cultivate the grape for wine 

 in this country must be very unprofitable, 

 as compared with other crops for which 

 our climate is better adapted. We are 

 without the limits assigned by the illus- 

 trious Humboldt for the successful culti- 

 vation of the vine ; these limits comprise a 

 belt, or zone, between the latitudes of 36° 

 and 43°, or where the mean temperature of 

 summer is not below 66° or 68' J Farther 

 north than latitute 50° it is too cold, and 

 farther south than 36° it is too hot. Its 

 cultivation may, however, be successfully 

 carried on in a zone nearly 1,000 miles 

 in width from north to south in the 

 Northern, and likewise in a similar zone 

 in the Southern Hemisphere. 



The Vine accommodates itseif remark- 

 ably well to artificial treatment— so much 

 so, that in countries so cold that its berries 

 do not ripen, nor even colour, scarcely 

 indeed form in their warmest seasons, 

 they can be produced by the aid of fire- 

 heat and glass, at all times of the year 

 in abundance by those who are inclined to 

 incur the expense. The cost in winter, is 

 of course very considerable ; but in the 

 season naturally the most favourable, 

 when the ordinary climate requires but a 

 little assistance, the expense of ensuring a 

 plentiful supply of grapes for several 

 months is comparatively trifling, especially 

 if proper varieties are employed. These 

 are exceedingly numerous. That which 

 maybe most successfully cultivated in this 

 way with the greatest ease, by aid of the 

 most ordinary skill, and which will yield 

 the most acceptable produce-- is the Black 

 Hamburg or Frankenthal. 



Some varieties of the grape are cultivat- 

 ed specially for the production of liaisins. 

 There is also the Black Corinth or Zante 

 grape, which furnishes the Currants of the 

 ; shops. This isstoneless or without seeds, 

 | except that occasionally there are amongst 

 I the produce from the same plant larger 

 I berries (these being such as have been fer- 

 | tilised) containing one or more seeds. The 

 i variety itself does not differ materially in 

 | appearance and foliage from other vines, 

 ! and has often fruited in the garden of the 

 j Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick. It 

 j is, indeed, only a variety of V.vinifera, and 

 i not a distinct species as some have suppos- 

 j ed. It has even been stated that it will only 

 succeed in Greece, and that elsewhere it 

 ! degenerates and becomes like an ordinary 

 | grape ; but the fact is that in some places 

 j out of Greece it thrives so much better 

 that it forms its seeds and produces its 

 ! fruit in perfection, to the depreciation of | 

 j its value in commerce, which is owing to | 

 i its imperfection- the absence of seeds, this j 

 being its general condition when grown ! 

 in the islands of Greece. 



There are various kinds of grapes, which | 

 grow wild and bear abundantly in North j 

 America, but they are very inferior to the 

 varieties of V vinifera. They belong to 

 V. Labrusca, V. cordifolia, and others, and 

 are called Fox-grapes from their foxy 

 perfume ; their pulp is slimy and disagree- 

 able. Of late years the vine has been 

 subject to the vine-disease„or vine-mildew, 

 caused by a parasitic fungus called Oidium 

 Tuckeri, "and which in some cases has 

 completely destroyed the crop. Sulphur 

 has proved the best preventive. [R.T.] 



VITI-TERT, VITTIE-VAYR, or VITTI- 

 "VAER. Indian names for the Khus-kh us 

 Grass, Andropogon muricatus. 



VITTADINIA. A genus of Composite?, 

 consisting of perennial plants, natives of 

 New Zealand and South-eastern Australia. 

 The flower-heads are placed on the ends of 

 the branches, and are surrounded by an 

 involucre of one or two rows of linear 

 somewhat membranous scales; the outer n 

 florets are strap-shaped, female, white or ' I 



