24 



POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Of wine^ the manufactured juice of the grape, we could 

 say much that would be interesting, but it does not belong 

 to a history of raw materials ; we may however state^ as a 

 proof of its importance, that the quantity imported into the 

 United Kingdom in 1850 was not less than 7,970,067 

 gallons, of which only 1,691,702 gallons were re-exported. 

 We receive comparatively few grapes in a fresh state ; about 

 three hundred tons arrive every autumn from Sicily, Lisbon, 

 and Hamburg ; the latter, the produce of Germany, are finely 

 coloured round black grapes ; the former, from Sicily and 

 Portugal, are oval berries, in large bunches, and both black 

 and white. They suffer much in flavour from being closely 

 packed, and stiU more from the use of sawdust as a packing 

 material. 



Eaisins, or Dried Grapes {Uvce passes majores), by far 

 the most important form in which this fruit is received, 

 are of various kinds, according to the variety of grape 

 from which they are prepared, or the mode of their prepa- 

 ration ; thus, some varieties are stoneless, presenting the cu- 

 rious anomaly of a true fruit being perfected without seed, 

 a peculiarity which occasionally takes place in highly cul- 

 tivated plants : this, although in the first instance only an 

 accidental variety, yet is capable of being propagated and 



