60 
VEGETABLES IMPORTANT IN COMMERCE. 
in Europe and the United States are believed, and—if the 
testimony of Pliny and other ancient naturalists is to be 
depended upon—many of them are historically known, to have 
originated in the temperate climates.of Asia. The wine grape 
has been thought to be truly indigenous only in the regions 
bordering on the eastern end of the Black Sea, where it now, 
particularly on the banks of the Rion, the ancient Phasis, 
propagates itself spontaneously, and grows with unexampled 
luxuriance.* But some species of the vine seem native to 
Europe, and many varieties of grape have been too long 
known as common to every part of the United States to admit 
of the supposition that they were all introduced by European 
colonists, f 
It is an interesting fact that the commerce—or at least the 
maritime carrying trade—and the agricultural and mechanical 
industry of the world are, in very large proportion, dependent 
on vegetable and animal products little or not at all known 
to ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish civilization. In many 
instances, the chief supply of these articles comes from coun¬ 
tries to which they are probably indigenous, and where they 
are still almost exclusively grown; but in many others, the 
plants or animals from which they are derived have been 
* The vine-wood planks of the ancient great door of the cathedral at 
Bavenna, which measured thirteen feet in length by a foot and a quarter 
in width, are traditionally said to have been brought from the Black Sea, 
by way of Constantinople, about the eleventh or twelfth century. No 
vines of such dimensions are now found in any other part of the East, and, 
though I have taken some pains on the subject, I never found in Syria or 
in Turkey a vine stock exceeding six inches in diameter, bark included. 
t The Northmen who—as I think it has been indisputably established 
by Professor Kafn of Copenhagen—visited the coast of Massachusetts about 
the year 1000, found grapes growing there in profusion, and the vine still 
flourishes in great variety and abundance in the southeastern counties of 
that State. The townships in the vicinity of the Dighton rock, supposed 
by many—with whom, however, I am sorry I cannot agree—to bear a 
Scandinavian inscription, abound in wild vines, and I have never seen a 
region which produced them so freely. I have no doubt that the culti¬ 
vation of the grape will become, at no distant day, one of the most im¬ 
portant branches of rural industry in that district. 
