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LXXXIII. Observations on the Verdelho Grape. In a Letter 

 to the Secretary. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 

 F.R. S. #c. President. 



Read March 4, 1817. 



My dear Sir, 



A n account of the Verdelho Grape has been given by Mr. 

 Williams, (to whom we are indebted for the importation 

 of it,) in the Horticultural Transactions of 1814,* in which 

 he has stated the vine, which produces it, to be of vigorous 

 growth and productive habits. He has not, however, I 

 think, spoken so favourably of it as he might have done ; 

 and therefore, as I send, according to your wishes, some 

 cuttings of it, I will add some further account of its merits. 

 I have found (and Mr. Williams' experience agrees with 

 mine,) that the same degree of shade, which will render the 

 greater number of the varieties of the Vine wholly unpro- 

 ductive of fruit, scarcely affects, and to no injurious extent, 

 the fertility of the Verdelho Grape. It also bears most 

 abundantly when planted even in small pots ; and I am 

 confident that if so planted, and introduced amongst green- 

 house plants in early spring, its fruit might be ripened in 

 great abundance, during the summer, after the more tender 

 exotics were removed into the open air. The leafless stems 

 of the vines, when first introduced, and indeed till the mid- 

 dle of May, would not injure the green-house plants ; and 



* Vol. II. page . 106. 



