Prof. Schouw on the Geographical Distribution of the Vine. 361 
distribution and natural temperature of any plant, are doubled 
with regard to one which has been cultivated. Whether a cul- 
tivated plant occur at any particular place, depends, not merely 
on climate, but also on the state of the civilisation and industry 
of a people, their mutual intercourse, and often on their man- 
ners, religious tenets, &c. There are always, however, limits 
fixed by the climate, which neither industry nor art can sur- 
mount. To ascertain these is important, both in a theoretical 
and practical point of view ; but even the knowledge of the ac- 
tual distribution, without regarding its possible enlargement, is 
by no means devoid of interest. The difficulty, however, is 
greater, since, in the generality of botanical works, little notice 
is taken of the cultivated plants, and hence the materials must 
be collected with great labour from geographical treatises and 
books of travels. In this inquiry I have confined myself to 
those portions of the earth's surface where the vine succeeds in 
the open air, and where its culture forms a branch of industry ; 
for, by extending it to countries where the vine is only reared 
in gardens or under glass, the result would have been in a great 
measure arbitrary and indefinite. 
Young, in his Travels in France, has determined the 
northern limit of the vine in that country ; it is also indi- 
cated in the Flore Franchise, t. i. in the map of the geography 
of plants. In Brittany and Normandy the vine is no longer 
cultivated, and having been succeeded by the apple, cider is there 
the customary drink. From ancient documents, however, it 
appears, that in these provinces the vine was formerly reared. 
The northern limit has, therefore, been perhaps somewhat arbi- 
trarily changed ; and it is now, on the western coast, in 47° 20', 
about Nantes, or a little to the northward. In the inland parts 
of the country it ascends to 49° (in the neighbourhood of Paris), 
in Champaigne 49°— 50°, and farther to the east, Young gives 
the junction of the Mosel with the Rhine (50° 20') as the boun- 
dary ; perhaps it reaches even to the 51st degree. In the heart 
of Germany it is in a somewhat lower latitude ; but in Thurin- 
gia, Saxony, and Siberia, it is as far north as on the Rhine, or 
in 51°. The wine, however, in these countries is for the most 
part inferior. Farther towards the east the limit descends ; for 
although Hungary has much wine, Galicia has none, and hence 
