JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



New Series.] MAT, JUNE, JULY, 1898. Vol. V. 



Parts 5, 6, 7 



VINES AND VINE CULTURE. 



By Eev. William Griffith. 



Mead before the Kingston Ilorticultural Society at the Institute of 

 Jamaica, 21st June, 1898. 



The subject of my paper is Vines and Vine Culture". The time 

 at our disposal will not permit of more than a very rapid glance at 

 general principles whilst some attention must be given to those cul- 

 tural details which are regarded as essentials to success. 



Man time out of memory has been a cultivator of the Vine and in 

 one or other of its manifold products it enters very largely into the 

 national, social and religious life of men almost everywhere It is ca- 

 pable of successful cultivation over a wide range of climate and the 

 art of man has devised means whereby in places where otherwise its 

 cultivation would be scarcely possible, grapes of the best quality and 

 in great quantity are regularly produced. The number of recognized 

 varieties in cultivation is very great. A healthy vine in vigorous 

 growth is always a pleasant sight and a well grown cluster of ripened 

 fruit is a " thing of beauty". Grrapes vary in size, shape, colour, and 

 flavour very widely, the quality of the fruit however depends neither 

 upon size, nor colour. Some of the smallest alike in bunch and berry, as 

 for instance all the Frontignans, are most delicious grapes, whilst 

 Buckland's Sweetwater" a much more showy grape very easy to 

 grow, and invariably yielding good crops has absolutely nothing to 

 recommend it except its good looks. The " ^iliiscat of Alexandria" 

 however, which is one of the freest bearers, stands perhaps without a peer 

 for size of both berry and cluster and its invariable high excellence. 

 Vines thrive best near the sea, or rather near the sea level — this is so 



