INTRODUCTION. 



Nullam, Yare, sacra ^'ite prius sevens arborem. 



Hoe. Ode xviii. 



The early history of the vine is involved in obscurity. 

 Many people consider its native country to be Syria ; but 

 this appears exceedingly doubtful. It has been supposed 

 that the vine was trained and reared by the hand of 

 man almost immediately after the subsiding of the great 

 waters of the deluge, as we find recorded in the 

 9th chapter of Genesis, that " Noah began to be an 

 husbandman, and planted a vineyard." 



The early cultivation of the vine in Egypt is proved by 

 the paintings on the ancient tombs. We have no account 

 of its introduction into Greece, where it evidently flou- 

 rished before the time of Homer ; and it is supposed to 

 have been introduced somewhat later into Italy, and 

 spread from thence through the north of Europe, and into 

 Great Britain, as the venerable Bede, writing in 731, 

 makes mention of several vineyards. At that period they 

 were generally attached to monastic institutions; sub- 

 sequently, however, the monks and the vineyards, in a 



