THE ^'IXE AXD ITS FRUIT. 



91 



tiiem, and even before they have obtained their full 

 size. In other cases the seeds do not ripen till after 

 the fruit or seed-vessel has attained its matm-ity. 

 Hence, whilst some seeds require to he sown at once, 

 others germinate better if allowed to remain out of 

 the ground some time, so as to allow of the slow 

 changes in the seed pre'viously alluded to. "WTiere 

 seeds quickly lose their vitality , as by dr^-ing, the pro. 

 cess of stratification, or packing in earth kept just 

 moist, is adopted, and this method is also one of the 

 best to secure safe transit of seeds from the tropics. 



on the shores of the Caspian, in Armenia and Cara- 

 mania, and is indigenous to a large portion of Asia, 

 whence it was introduced into Egypt, Greece, Spain, 

 Italy, and France. Its introduction into Britain is 

 shrouded in doubt. Some old writers think it was 

 brought over by the Romans a few years after the 

 Christian era, while others assert that it was not 

 grown in this country before the year 280, when 

 Probus, a great patron of agTiculture in all the 

 Roman pro^-inces, was EmjDcror. Some have at- 

 tempted to make the Phoenicians immortal by sapng 



Fig. 1.— Leak-to Vikert. 

 A A, Border; b b, drainage ; cc, ventilators ; d, passage ; oo, pipes. 



THE YINE AND ITS FRUIT. 



By William Colemau. 



INTROBJJCTORY. 



THE Tine. Vifis vunfera, is one of the oldest, as it 

 is certainly one of the most graceful fruit -bear- 

 ing trees we have in cultivation. Readers of the Old 

 and Xew Testaments are well acquainted with the 

 fact that its culture and uses were understood before 

 the time of the Deluge, and that Xoah, after leaving 

 the Ark, planted for himself a vineyard and made 

 wine — pure and unsophisticated, no doubt, which is 

 more than consumers of the present day can say. 

 In the Book of Exodus we learn that the spies sent 

 by Moses into Canaan retm-ned with an enormous 

 bunch, borne between them on a staff. David often 

 speaks of the vine, and finally, the Saviour Himself 

 makes every Christian believer acquainted with it by 

 His beautiful similes, and the way in which He has 

 commanded us to make use of the wine in remem- 

 brance of Him. According to Sickler it grows wild 



they brought the vine in the time of Solomon, 

 when they visited the southern shores of this island 

 for tin. Be this as it may, the Venerable Bede, a 

 reliable authority, assures us that many vineyards 

 existed in this country in his time (731), and when 

 the Isle of Ely was Icnown as the Isle of Vines, from 

 which the bishop of that diocese received an an- 

 nual supx^ly of wine by way of tithe. William of 

 Malmesbury, in the twelfth century, speaks highly 

 of the county of Gloucester as a wine-growing dis- 

 trict, where, as in the adjoining county of Hereford, 

 traces of the flats or slopes on which the ^-ines were 

 grown not only exist, but still bear the name of 

 The Vineyard." We learn that excellent Bur- 

 gundy was grown by the Duke of Xorfolk at 

 Ai-undel, in Sussex, while Pains Hill, in Siu-rey, was 

 noted for the quality of its champagne. AValham 

 Green, Rotherhithe, Bury St. Edmunds, and Belvoir 

 Castle, on the borders of Lincolnshire, are also men- 

 tioned as having been famous for the excellence of 

 thf ir wine, which was little, if at all, inferior to that 



