V I T 
407 
there was about that time, (the Norman invasion) great store 
of vines at Santlac (near to Battel.”) He adds, as to Berk¬ 
shire, “ the like whereof I have redd to have been at Wynd- 
sore, in so moche as tythe of theim hathe beene theare yelded 
in great plenty, which gyveth me to think, that wyne hath 
been made longe sence within the realme; although in our 
memorie it be accompted a great deintye to heare of.” He 
farther observes, that some part of the wine was spent in the 
king’s houshold, and some sold for the king’s profit. 
John Twyne has remarked, that William of Malmesbury 
has extolled the vines and wine of Gloucestershire; and the 
passage is extant in William’s book de Gestis Pont. IV. p. 
283. See also Camden, 
Domesday-book mentions at Rageneia in Essex one park, 
and six arpennies of vineyard, which, if it takes well, yields 
twenty modii of wine.—And at Ware, a park and six arpen¬ 
nies of vineyard very lately planted. 
We hear of vineyards also in Middlesex, Cambridgeshire 
at Denny abbey, the Isle of Ely, at Dunstable, and at St. 
Edmunsbury; in the engraved plan of which town the vine¬ 
yard of the abbey is particularly noted. Within the walls of 
the city of London there is a street called the vineyard ; and 
in the liberties and suburbs, and in Westminster, there is 
vine-street in Hatton garden, and St. Giles’s and Piccadilly; 
and the vineyards by Hounsditch and Cold bath fields. 
The varieties of the vine are almost endless; but the fol¬ 
lowing list of the most esteemed sorts will be sufficient to 
stock the vinery and clothe the walls of any common garden. 
White sweet-water, white muscadine, royal ditto, black 
ditto, black Frontinac, white ditto, red ditto. Grisly ditto, 
black Hamburgh, white ditto, white raisin, red ditto, Syrian, 
white Tokay, flame-coloured ditto, white passe mosque, 
Grecian, white muscat of Alexandria, black ditto, large 
black cluster, black Constantia, white ditto, St. Peter’s grape, 
Lomhardy, and Verdhelho. 
The last species or sort has the stem woody with slender 
branches, but does not afford fruit in this climate. 
The vine may be increased in different ways : as by seeds, 
cuttings, layers, as well as by grafting and inoculation; 
but the cutting and layer methods are the most commonly 
employed. 
In raising vines from seeds, they should be sown in the 
early spring, as about the beginning of March, in small pots 
filled with mould of the light fresh kind, to the number of 
three or four seeds in each, plunging the pots in a moderate 
hot-bed, the mould being gently sprinkled over with water, 
from a fine-rosed watering-pot, every day when the weather 
is hot and dry, which should be performed in the latter part 
of the day as the sun disappears from the frame. But when 
the season is such as to keep the mould in the pots properly 
moist, the waterings may be omitted. As soon as the wa¬ 
terings have been performed, the frames should be shut 
down, and be kept in that state during the night, when the 
heat is not too great. 
When the heat of the bed begins to decline, a lining of 
horse-dung and fresh leaves should be added; or the heat 
be renewed by stirring the old beds up and making slight 
additions to them. This should be continued till the plants 
have acquired sufficient strength to support themselves with¬ 
out bottom heat. For forcing, pruning, &c., see Horti¬ 
culture, Vol. X. 
Several causes may be assigned why vineyards were neg¬ 
lected, and at length in a manner disused in this country. 
The principal cause probably was that our wine was of an 
inferior quality, and that better wine could be had cheap 
from our French provinces. The advancement of agriculture 
also contributed to their being relinquished. We may how¬ 
ever fairly conclude that there were many vineyards in Eng¬ 
land, for several centuries since the conquest; few of our 
greater religious foundations, in the south at least, having been 
without them. 
VITMANNIA [so named by Vahl, in honour of Abbe 
F. Vitmann, professor at Milan], in Botany, a genus of the 
class octandria, order monogynia. — Generic Character. 
Calyx: perianth one-leafed, short, four-cleft; segments 
V I T 
rounded, concave within, convex without. Corolla: petals 
four, linear-oblong, little concave, thickish, hoary on the 
outside, obtuse, unguicular. Nectary, a small obovate scale 
at the base of each filament, shorter on the alternate ones. 
Stamina: filaments eight, a little shorter than the petals, 
smooth. Anthers linear, subbifid at the base. Pistil: germ 
superior, four-lobed; lobes semiorbicular, compressed, 
slightly connate, easily separable from one another and 
from the style (perhaps they are rather four germs.) 
Style simple, awl-shaped, length of the filaments. Stigma 
acute. Pericarp: nut semilunar, compressed, one-eelled, 
valveless. Seed one, large, obovate-sickled, turgidly lenti¬ 
cular, smooth.—• Essential Character. Calyx four-cleft. 
Corolla four-petalled. Nectary, a scale at the base of each 
filament. Nut semilunar, compressed, one-seeded. 
Vitmannia elliptica.—This is a tree with round, smooth 
branches, compressed a little at the tip. Leaves alternate, a 
hand and more in length, elliptic, quite entire, smooth on 
both sides, on a short petiole which is flatfish above, but 
convex underneath. Stipules none. Peduncles lateral or a 
little below the top of the branch, solitary or sometimes two 
together, compressed a little. Pedicels umbelled, short, one- 
flowered. Fruit a corky or woody nut, compressed like a 
lens, or concavo-convex. Size of the nut various, bigger 
than the palm of the hand, or scarcely an inch in diameter, 
and from a narrow beginning widening gradually into the 
shape of a fly’s wing; but always somewhat concave and 
snail-shaped. Gaertner conjectures, that the fruit, when 
complete, is composed of two nuts, horizontally opposite; 
and that it belongs to the order of contortse.—Native of the 
East Indies, where it was found by Koenig. 
VITO, Capo di San, the north-west point of the island 
of Sicily. Lat. 38. 12. N. long. 12. 41. E. 
VITOLANO, an inland town of Naples, in the Prineipato 
Ultra. It has considerable manufactures of leather. Popu¬ 
lation 5500. 
VITRE, a town of France, in Brittany, department of the 
Ille et Vilaine. It is situated on the banks of the Vilaine, 
hich is here a small stream; 20 miles east of Rennes. Po¬ 
pulation 9000. 
VI'TREOUS, adj. [vitreus , Lat.] Glassy ; consisting of 
glass; resembling glass.—The hole answers to the pupil of 
the eye; the crystalline humour to the lenticular glass ; the 
dark room to the cavity containing the vitreous humour, 
and the white paper to the retina. Raj/. 
VI'TREOUSNESS, s. Resemblance of glass. 
VITREY, a town of France, department of the Upper 
Saone, with 1700 inhabitants; 16 miles east of Langres. 
VITRI'FICABLE, adj. Convertible into glass. 
To VITRI'FICATE, v. a. [yitrum and facio, Lat.] To 
change into glass.—We have metals vitrificated, and other 
materials, besides those of which you make glass. Bacon. 
VITRIFICA'TION, s. Production of glass; act of 
changing, or state of being changed into glass.—For vitri- 
jication likewise, what metals will endure it ? Also because 
vitrification is accounted a kind of death of metals, what 
vitrification will admit of turning back again, and what not? 
Bacon. 
To VI'TRIFY, v. a. [v it rum and facio, Lat.] To change 
into glass.—Metals will vitrify ; and perhaps some portion of 
the glass of metal vitrified, mixed in the pot of ordinary 
glass metal, will make the whole mass more tough. Bacon. 
To VI'TRIFY, v. it. To become glass; to be changed 
into glass.—Chymists make vessels of animal substances cal¬ 
cined, which will not vitrify in the fire; for all earth which 
hath any salt or oil in it will turn to glass. Arbuthnot. 
VFTRIOL, s. [yitriolum, Lat.] Vitriol is produced by 
addition of a metallic matter with the fossil acid salt. Wood¬ 
ward. 
VI'TRIOLATE, or Vi'triolated, adj. [from vitrio- 
lum, Lat.] Impregnated with vitriol; consisting of vitriol. 
VITRIO'LIC, or Vi'triolous, adj. [from vitriolum, 
Lat.] Resembling vitriol; containing vitriol. 
VITRUVIUS (M. Pollio), a very distinguished writer 
on architecture, is supposed to have flourished in the times 
of 
