23e 
VITIS VINIFERA. 
And he drank of the wine and was drunken."* This is the first men- 
tion made of the vine in Holy Writ ; but from the circumstance of 
Noah planting a vineyard immediately after the waters had subsided, 
we may conclude that the vine was an object of culture in the anti- 
deluvian world. To give to the vine a local habitation and a 
name," cannot therefore be a task of difficulty. The land of Ca- 
naan, a tract of country lying between the Mediterranean Sea and 
the mountains of Arabia, and extending frsni Egypt to Phoenicia, 
was probably the first district where the vine was' regularly 
cultivated;! and we may conclude that it was very soon intro- 
duced into the neighbouring country of Egypt, if, indeed, we 
may not consider it as indigenous to the northern parts of Asia 
and Africa. The precise time of its introduction into Europe 
is a matter of more uncertainty j but as the colonies which Cadmus 
carried into Thebes in Boetia, were descended from the Canaanites, 
as were also the first settlers in Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Cyprus,J 
Corfu, and Gades, or Cadiz, we may conclude that the introduction 
of the vine into Spain, Greece, and Italy, took place at a very early 
period, if, which is not improbable, it was not also of indigenous 
growth in the southern parts of Europe. We know, however, that 
among the Romans, even nearly to the time of LucuHus, wine was 
so scarce that they were seldom able to regale themselves with it ; 
very little was at this tiftie raised in Italy, and foreign wine was so 
dear that it was rarely produced at entertainments, and even when it 
was, it was only as a cordial. But in the seventh century, as Rome 
extended her conquests, augmented her wealth, and with it her 
luxury, wines became an object of particular attention. In the time 
of Vespasian, France was famous for its vineyards : the whole pro- 
vince of Narbonne was then covered with vines, and a considerable 
quantity of wine was exported from thence into Italy. Gaul, which 
during Caesar's expedition had not a single vineyard, had numbers in 
the time of Strabo. The culture of the vine in England may be 
traced to a very early period, and was formerly very common ; its 
introduction is ascribed to the Romans, and it is mentioned by Bede 
as early as the eighth century. We find from Doomsday book, that 
wine was made in England during a period preceding the conquest ; 
* Genesis, chap, ix, 20 and 21. 
+ This district has gone by the successive names of Palestine, the Land of Israel, 
Judah, and the Holy Land, and now forms a part of Asiatic Turkey. 
J This island was celebrated at a very early period both for the quantity of its wine, 
and, as it still is, for its superior quality. 
