178 



ON THE AGE AND 



indeed, the idea one forms of a Vine-tree, in its 

 rude and natural state, is exceedingly similar to 

 that of a large bramble-bush b ; yet, by care and 



lie in the same latitude. Yet by the efforts that have been 

 hitherto made in Virginia and Carolina, it is apparent that 

 they are not blessed with that clemency of climate, or aptitude 

 for making wine, as the parallel parts of Europe, where the 

 seasons are more equal, and the spring not subject, as in Caro- 

 lina, to the vicissitudes of weather, and alternate changes of 

 warmth and cold, which, by turns, both checks and agitates 

 the rising sap, by which the tender shoots are often cut off. 

 Add to this the ill effects they are liable to by too much wet, 

 which frequently happening at the time of ripening, occasions 

 the rotting and bursting of the fruit. 



" Though the natural causes of these impediments may not 

 presently be accounted for, yet it is to be hoped that time and 

 an assiduous application will obviate these inclement obstruc- 

 tions, of so beneficial a manufacture as the making of wine may 

 prove." — 'Catesbys Natural History of Carolina, vol. i. p. 22. 



b Although the Vine makes but a mean and despicable ap- 

 pearance in its rude and natural state, yet scarcely any plant 

 surpasses it in elegance and beauty when trained by art. 



Vines judiciously propagated against a wall have a most 

 pleasing appearance ; and if trained, as often is practised on the 

 roof of a hot-house, &c. and the different kinds of grapes (with 

 their various-coloured berries) are intermixed with propriety, 

 there is a wonderful richness and beauty at the time when the 

 fruit is near ripe. But the method of training Vines, in the 

 manner of festoons, as practised in some parts of Spain and 

 Italy, affords a scene superb almost beyond the powers of de- 

 scription. 



" I walked leisurely the best part from Molin de Reys to 

 this town with a prospect sufficiently fine all around me, to 



* Barcelona. 



