The Raisin de Carmes, or, as it is sometimes called, Raisin de Cabo, is a grape of fine qualities. The fruit is produced in rather loose long bunches ; the berries large and of an oval form. The skin is thickish, of a dusky pur ple colour, covered with a fine bloom ; the pulp is firm and extremely rich, though containing a considerable por tion of acid. The filaments and anthers frequently remain when the fruit is ripe. The vine needs a high tempera ture ; in the stove it grows freely and bears well, but it requires particular attention at the time of The wood is rather slender, of a yellowish-brown colour ; the leaves small, and pale green. It is figured by Hooker, in the Pomona Londinensis, t. 10.
The Raisin grape is of a brown or blackish colour ; large, oval, fleshy and firm, but with a pleasant juice ; forming handsome long bunches. It also is only suited to the hot house.
The Syrian grape, is among the coarsest of the grape kind ; but the vine is a good bearer under glass, and pro duces bunches of extraordinary size. The large, oval, white, with a thick skin and firm pulp ; they continue in good condition till January. In this country, Mr Speedily once produced a bunch which weighed 19 lib. and he describes another which was four feet and a half in circumference, and near two feet in length. This last bunch was sent to the distance of twenty miles as a present. Four men were employed, two by turns, carry ing the bunch suspended on a pole or staff resting on their shoulders. No doubt one man could have carried the bunch, if the weight alone be considered; but it was a great object to transmit it without bruise or injury. This may tend toillustrate a passage in the Sacred Writings (Book of Numbers, ch. xiii.), where the description of this mode of carrying a bunch of grapes has sometimes very unneces sarily excited a sneer.
127. In warmer countries than this, vines that are suf fered to grow without pruning attain a large size, their stems assuming the appearance of trunks of trees. Vines that are regularly pruned or dressed cannot be expected ever to arrive at such magnitude. Even in the ungenial climate of Britain, however, they sometimes have a sur prising size and expansion. The Northallerton vine, about the year 1785, covered a space of 137 square yards, and the circumference of the trunk near the ground was al most four feet ; it was then considerably more than a hundred years old. Lysons, in his Account of the Envi rons of London, describes a Black Hamburgh vine at Va lentines in Essex, the branches of which extended 200 feet, the stem being• I foot 13 inches in circumference. It
sometimes yielded 4 cwt. of grapes in a season. Another Black Hamburgh vine, still more famous for the quantity of its produce, has already been mentioned § 26, as exist ing in a grape-house at Hampton Court Palace. This season (1816) it yielded about a ton of grapes.
128. New varieties of grapes are of course only to be procured by sowing the seeds. When this is intended, the grapes should be left on the vine till almost in a state of decay, taking care, however, if they be exposed to the open air, to cover them from the attacks of birds. The stones, in this very mature state, become of a dark brown colour; they are to be separated from the pulp, and laid in a dry airy place till spring. Mr Speedily, in his work first pub lished in 1786, recommends the bringing together of flow ering branches of two different kinds of grape, calculated to modify or improve each other : the frontio•nac and other high-flavoured grapes, he observes, may aid flavour to other kinds ; the white sweetwater may be coupled with the red f•ontignac, with the Black Hamburgh, or with the white muscat of Alexandria. He boldly augurs, that the best sorts of grapes hitherto known, will at some future day be esteemed only as secondary or inferior. The dis tinguished Mr Knight supports these views, and indeed has done much towards their accomplishment.
Under the name of Variegated Chasselas, Mr Knight has described a new variety which sprung from a flower of the white Chasselas, dusted with the pollen of the Aleppo grape, which last, he remarks, readily variegates the leaves and fruit of the offspring of any white grape. The ber ries are sniped and very beautiful ; with a thin skin, and juicy. The leaves become variegated with red and yellow in autumn. It has been found to be a very hardy and pro ductive variety, bearing well in the open air. When gather ed in October, and hung up in bunches in rather a damp room, it keeps till February or later.
This active horticulturist has described (Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. vol. i.) still another variety of variegated grape, in which the bunches on the same plant arc of different colours. This too he considers as fit for the open air, at least in the south of England : it is very productive, though both the bunches and berries are small. It contains much saccharine 'natter, more perhaps than any grape, except the verdelho of Madeira, Mr Knight therefore considers it as better calculated for the press, in a cool climate, than any we now possess, and observes, that if it were trained to low v. ails in the warmer parts of England, it would of a wine of considerable strength.