VITIS, in botany, the vine, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and or der. Natural order of flederacex. Viti ces, Jussieu. Essential character : petals cohering at the top, shrivelling ; berry five-seeded, superior. There are twelve species, and many varieties.
The most important species of the vi tis is V. vinifera, or common vine, which _ has naked, lobed, shunned leaves. There are a great many varieties ; and all the sorts are propagated either from layers, or cuttings ; the latter method is sad to' be preferable, though the former is much used in this country.
The uses of the fruit of tile vine for • making wine, &c. are well known. The vine was introduced by the Romans into Britain, and appears formerly to have been very common. From the name of vineyard yet adhering to the ruinous scites of our castles_ and monasteries, there seem to have been few in the country but what had a vineyard belong- -• ing to them. The county of Gloucester is particularly commended by Malmsbu. ry, in the twelfth century, as expelling all the rest in the kingdom in the number and goodness of its vineyards. In' the earlier periods of our history, the isle of Ely was expressly denominated the isle , of Vines by the Normans. Vineyards are frequently noticed in the descriptive accdunts of Doomsday ; and thoSe of _ England are even mentioned by Bede as early as the commencement of the! eighth century.
Doomsday exhibits to us a particular proof that wine was made in England du r ing the period preceding the conquest ; and after the conquest, the bishop of Ely appears to have received at least three or four tons of wine annually as tithes, from the produce of the vineyards in his diocese, and to have made frequent re servations in his leases of a certain quan tity of wine for rent. A plot of land in London, which now forms East Smith field and some adjoining streets, was withheld from the religious house Aldgate by four successive constables of the tower, in the reigns of Rufus, Henry, and Stephen, and made by them into a vineyard, which yielded great emolu ment. In the old accounts of rectorial
and vicarial revenues, and in the old re gisters of ecclesiastical suit con,;; ruing them, the tithe of wine is an article that frequently occurs in Kent, Surry, and other counties. And the wines of Glou cestershire, within a century after the conquest, were little inferior to the French in sweetness. The beautiful re gion of Gaul, which had not a single vine in the days of Caesar, had numbers so early as the time of Strabo. The south of it was particularly stocked with them; and they had even extended themselves into the interior parts of the country ; but the grapes of the latter did not ripen kindly. France was famous for its vine yards in the reign of Vespasian, and even exported its wines to Italy. The whole province of Narbonne was then covered with vines ; and the wine-merchants of the country were remarkable for knavish dexterity, tinging it with smoke, colour ing it (as was suspected) with herbs and noxious dyes, and even adulterating the taste and appearance with aloes. And as our first vines would be transplanted from Gaul, so were in all probability those of the Allobroges in Franche comte. These were peculiarly fitted for cold countries. They ripened even in the frosts of the advancing winter ; and they were of the same colour, and seem to have been of the same species, as the black muscadines of the present day, which have lately been tried in this isl and, and found to be the fittest for the climate. These were brought into Bri tain a little after the vines had been car ried over all the kingdoms of Gaul, and about the middle of the third century, when the numerous plantations had gra dually spread over the face of the lat ter.