[93] 



XX. Some Account of the Esperione Grape. In a Letter 

 to the Secretary. By John Townsend Aiton, Esq. 

 F. H. S. of Windsor, Gardener to His Majesty. 



Read March 3, 1818. 



Dear Sir, 



By your desire, I send to you, with this letter, some cuttings 

 of my Esperione Grape Vine, the fruit of which I had the 

 honour to submit, through your kindness, to the Horticultural 

 Society, last autumn ; and it gave me great satisfaction to 

 learn, that the Society had approved of the recommendation 

 to cultivate this useful variety of grape. I shall, in conse- 

 quence of your request, subjoin a few remarks. 



I first noticed the Esperione grape about the year 1804, in 

 the Catalogue of Mr. Richard Williams, the respected 

 nurseryman at Turnham Green. Struck with the novelty of 

 the name, I procured from him three healthy vines, which 

 were planted, the same year, in his Majesty's gardens at Wind- 

 sor, in a south aspect ; and 800 square feet of wall were al- 

 lotted for their culture. This space was completely covered 

 in the fourth year, and, since that time, the plants, have 

 always produced and matured large crops of fruit. Un- 

 favourable as was the last season, they ripened about twelve 

 hundred bunches of well coloured grapes. The Esperione 

 vine is prolific to an extraordinary degree, very hardy, and of 

 most luxuriant growth, perfecting its fruit equally well, and 

 early, with the Sweet Water, and Muscadine ; and in unfa- 



