868 Prof. Schouw on the Geographical Distribution (yfthc Vine . 
it appears to be here in 48°-49° *. In Moldavia the culture of 
the vine is considerable, as well as in the Crimea, and the south- 
ern parts of Russia ; but it scarcely advances here beyond the 
47tli to the 48th degree. In Moscow the vine is only reared 
under glass. In Western Asia it is cultivated both at the 
foot of Caucasus, and also at Astracan ; the limit may be 
47°-48°. In the inner parts of Asia, it is not so easily ascer- 
tained. The vine occurs on the other side of the Caspian Sea, 
in the country of the Turcomans, in Great and Little Bucharia, 
but is entirely wanting in Siberia. In the eastern part of the Old 
Continent, the culture of the vine disappears. In Japan, ac- 
cording to Thunberg, grapes do not ripen ; neither are they 
cultivated in China, nor in Cochinchina, although certainly not 
owing to causes connected with the climate ; but perhaps to the 
very extensive culture of tea, as well as to the restricted inter- 
course of the Chinese with strangers, and their aversion to adopt 
foreign customs. Several kinds of Vitis, however, grow wild in 
Japan, and probably also in China. In the New World, it is 
singular that the vine is only cultivated in the southern pro- 
vinces of the United States, although several sorts of Vitis are met 
with over a very considerable district, which caused the part of 
America discovered by the ancient Scandinavians before Colum- 
bus, to be called the Land of Wine. To the west of the Alleghany 
Mountains, the culture of the vine seems to extend farther 
north, being found on the banks of the Ohio in 37°. The 
north-west coast appears to be more favourable to the vine, for 
it is reared at St Francisco (38°), and, according to Humboldt, 
to the north of Monte Ray beyond 37°. The northern limit in 
Europe and Western Asia is consequently nearly coincident with 
the parallels of latitude, and does not by any means suffer such 
deviations as that of the beech-tree. In the New Continent it is 
a much lower latitude ; arbitrary causes may, however, come 
here into operation* and* in the same way, we must account for 
the vine not being cultivated in the eastern part of the Old 
Continent. 
The southern limit of the vine in the northern hemisphere, falls, 
according to Von Buch i*, on the island of Ferro (27° 48'), and 
this must be acceded only, in so far as relates to places at the level 
* Wahlenberg, Flora Carpathorum , p. Ixvii. 
■f AHgemcinc Ubersiekt , p. 36. 
