C 170 ] 



XXVII. Explanatory Notes respecting Six New Varieties of Vine 

 recently introduced from Dukhun (Deccan). By Colonel 

 Sykes, F. JR. S. 



Read June 21, 1836. 



It will probably be acceptable to the Horticultural Society to 

 have some few explanatory notices respecting the six new species 

 of Vines recently introduced by me into this country through 

 the medium of the good offices of my friend Colonel Bare,, Military 

 Auditor-General, Bombay, and Mr. Vaupel, Secretary to the 

 Horticultural Society at Bombay, and the obliging and disin- 

 terested care of Captain Pollock of the ship Raffles, who had 

 charge of them on the voyage home ; and in which Vines the 

 Horticultural Society has participated with Lord Powis. These 

 explanatory notices are the more necessary to remove a miscon- 

 ception prevailing in Europe regarding the natural habit of the 

 Vine, a gentleman lecturing to a Mechanic's Institute lately, 

 having stated that the profitable cultivation of the Vine was limited 

 to countries having a mean temperature between 50° and 60° Fahr. 

 and not within 30° of the Equator ; whereas the whole of the six 

 species adverted to are cultivated in Dukhun (Deccan) East Indies, 

 between the 17th and 19th parallels of N. latitude, and longitude 

 73° 50' and 76° 50' east of Greenwich, at an elevation above the 

 sea varying from 1500 to 1800 feet; the mean temperature of the 

 year being from 77° to 78° Fahr. the mean temperature of the 

 hottest months (April and May) 81° to 85°, and of the coldest 

 66° to 71° in December and January; the thermometer having 

 been known to rise to 110° in a tent in April, and to sink for a few 

 hours as low as 37° in the winter months. 



