44§ LETTERS. 
any traces of his vineyards or gardens, of which 
he fpeaks in the Scriptures ; for to attempt to illu- 
ftrate that kind of Botany, which Solomon un- 
derftood, I think is the fame as to look for the 
place where the Tower of Babylon flood ; though 
it cannot be denied, but that Solomon knew much 
more of Natural Hiftory, confidering the time 
and circumftances of the nation, over which he 
reigned, than any other of thofe times. But to leave 
his Botany, and return to his plantations ; there is 
now not the leafl trace remaining of them ; we 
can judge by certain circumftances, where one or 
other of his pleafure gardens was fituated ; thus 
have I found the fituation of his vineyard in En~ 
gedda , in which he introduced vines from Cyprus, 
to which he compares his beauty, in his Canticles, 
ch. i. ver. 14. Here the Arabs have vineyards to 
this day, and fell the wine to the Chriftians ; but 
the vines are now fo degenerated, that they will 
not produce the rich Cyprus wine. It was not 
difficult for Solomon to get vines from Cyprus 
and plant them, but whence did he get the 
Rhenifh vines, which he planted at Hebron, and 
which grow there to this day, affordirfg a Rhe- 
nifh wine, equal to any, that Europe produces, 
which I, and all the Franks who came to Jerufa- 
]em, took be real Rhenifh wine ; the Latin Monks, 
buy from the Arabs the fmall quantity, which they 
make yearly at Hebron. This kind of wine does 
not grow in any place of the Eaft, nor in the 
Archipelago; perhaps this kind of grape has al- 
ways grown wild in Palasftine, and was by Solo- 
mon tranfplanted into his garden. Might not the 
Europeans have got the firft vines from hence, 
which they planted on the Rhine ? This feems 
more probable, than that Solomon ffiould have got 
his 
