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Materia Medica. — Vitis Vinifera. part ii.

Sun. Raisin sees (F-), Rosine (G.), UVa passa (I. , Passa (S-), Zabib [Arab.),Kishmish [H.).

The Vine is a native of Armenia, Georgia, and most of thetemperate regions of the earth ; and is cultivated with carewherever its fruit can be brought to perfection. Its culture issupposed to have been introduced from the East, where it wascultivated, and wine made from the fruit, in the earliest ages ' ;and afterwards to have extended from Italy to Burgundy inthe time of the Antonines. It was introduced into Madeira,from the island of Cyprus, in the fifteenth century. In GreatBritain the vine was cultivated before the year 731, whenBede finished his history; but although it was at one periodbrought to considerable perfection' 2 , yet, from the greatervalue of the ground for the cultivation of corn, and the winedproduced in this country having never equalled those of thecontinent, vineyards are now scarcely known in Britain. TheVine, therefore, is cultivated here for the dessert only, no raisinsare made, and scarcely any wine.

The Vine has a slender, twisted, climbing stem, covered witha rough, peeling, fibrous bark. The leaves are lobed, and sinu-ated, serrate, and placed alternately on long footstalks. Theflowers, which appear in June and July, are small, and pro-duced in clusters, attended by tendrils. The calyx is very-minute ; the petals are of a greenish white colour, adherent attheir apices, and soon fall off like a fiftie cap, from the an-thers, which then spread, and shed their pollen. The fruit isa succulent globular berry, one-celled when ripe.; naturallycontaining five seeds; but in general only two, which are hardand of an irregular form. There are many varieties of the vine;that which is called the Alexandrian Frontiniac yields the mostdelicious grapes for eating, and the Syrian the largest bunches.s

Raisins are made from the varieties named the black raisingrape, and the white raisin grape. They are cured in twomethods; either by cutting the stalk of the bunches halfthrough, when the grapes are nearly ripe, and leaving themsuspended on the vine till their watery part is evaporated,and the sun dries and candies them; or by gathering the

1 We are told, that Noah, after coming out of tbe ark, planted a vineyard, and" drank of the wine, and was drunken." Genesis, chap.ix, ver. 20, 21.

2 There were many vineyards in different parts of this country from which winewas made j and we are informed, that in the cellar at Arundel castle, in 1763,rherc were sixty pipes of excellent Burgundy, the produce of a vineyard attachedto the castle. Museum Jiusticum, i. 85.

5 Tliis is supposed to be the sort of grape which the spies, sent by Moses toexamine Canaan, cut down at the brook Eshcol; " a branch with one cluster ofgrapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff." Numbers, chap. xiii. 23.Strabo relates, that in Margiana bunches of grapes were produced two cubits, or ayard long ; and in some of the Archipelago islands, they weigh from thirty toforty pounds. The Syrian grape, in this country, has produced bunches weighingnineteen pounds and a half. Martyris edition of Miller's Dictionary. There i* agrape, cultivated in Madeira, as a dessert fruit, the clusters of which sometime*weigh twenty pounds.