GRAPE. 



221 



fact is, the grape was known a hundred years before 

 his time. 



6. M^hite Muscadine, — -Called by the French ^'chas- 

 sdas musgue;*' a well known and useful grape, in- 

 troduced by that great promoter of British garden- 

 ing. Sir W. Temple, who w^as ambassador to the 

 courts of the Low Countries in the reign of Charles II 

 and other succeeding sovereigns. Sir William, to- 

 gether with Lord Capel, at Kew, introduced a great 

 variety of fruit trees from the Continent in their 

 days ; particularly French and Flemish pears and 

 other fruits, which were planted in their respective 

 gardens at IVIoor Park, Kew, and Sheen, near Rich- 

 mond, as reported by Switzer. 



The bunches of this variety are of a moderate 

 size, rather loose and long; berries round, light- 

 green, with a little russet on the side exposed to the 

 sun ; the pulp pretty firm and juicy ; not so high- 

 flavoured as the royal muscadine, but valuable for 

 its early ripening, and hanging long uninjured on 

 the tree. It is also one of the best for potting, and 

 for early forcing along with the sweet water. In 

 Langley^s Pomona, it is said to ripen in the open 

 air about the end of August ; but it is never so early 

 now-a-days. 



7. Royal Muscadine, — Speechley has unnecessa- 

 rily added d^Arboise to the name, which would sig- 

 nify that there is another royal muscadine, which is 

 not the fact. 



The fruit and bunches are distinguished from the 



