GRAPE (from OF. grape, cluster, from OHG. crapho, Ger. Krapfen, hook). The fruit of any species of the genus Vitis, also, in the United States and Canada, any plant of this genus. In other English-speaking countries the plant is designated the 'vine.' Grapes grow wild in Egypt, Arabia, Turkey in Asia, and in the Mediterranean countries of Europe; more than twenty species are found in America, from Canada to Florida and westward. The cultivated vines of Europe and the Orient all belong to the single species Vitis vinif era.
The cultivation of the grape and the making of wine are of the most remote antiquity, as ap pears from the Scripture history of Noah, and from many passages of the most ancient authors, for example, Vergil and Columella, who both gave instructions in vine cultivation. The myth ological fable of the marches of Bacchus relates to the extension of the culture of the vine from Asia into Europe. The vine was probably intro duced into the south of France and into Italy by the Phocnans, about B.C. 600, and its cultiva tion was early coextensive with civilization in all the Mediterranean regions. In Italy so much of the land was occupied by vineyards that the Emperor Domitian, fearing a scarcity of grain, issued a restrictive or prohibitory edict A.D. 81, which remained in force long afterwards through fear that an abundance of fine wine might tempt the barbarians of the north to invade the country. The vine was introduced into England by the' Romans. After the Norman Conquest the vineyards which seem to have ex isted in the south and southwest soon disap peared, having had only occasional successful successors until the nineteenth century, when vine culture in gardens and on walls mainly for fresh fruit increased in this region. The vine does not, in ordinary seasons, ripen its fruit well in Great Britain farther north than Yorkshire, although grapes have occasionally ripened in the open air in Scotland. On the Continent the cultivation of the vine for wine is an important industry as far north as Coblenz, on the Rhine; but in seine countries, particularly in Greece and the Ionian Islands, the product of the vineyards is converted into raisins. By the Spaniards and Portuguese the vine was in troduced into the Azores, the Madeira and Ca nary Isles, and America. The first vines were carried to the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch in 1650; but while the wines of Madeira and those of the limited district of Constantia at the Cape of Good Hope have long enjoyed a high celebrity, and those of Canary and Teneriffe have been exported in considerable quantities, it is only of late that much attention has begun to be paid to vine culture in the other parts of Cape Colony. Good wines are being made in Australia.
The grape is a perennial, deciduous, woody, climbing vine, which makes itself fast to its support by strong persistent tendrils, opposite or alternate with the large angular, lobed, toothed, and generally hairy leaves. The stems are nu merous, very long, branching, of rapid growth, and with many swollen joints; the outer bark readily splits and peels; the woody tissue abounds with vessels of large size, from which at the seasons of active vegetation the sap pours in prodigious quantity if the branch be wounded.
The fruit-stalks, which are much branched modi fied tendrils, are borne on wood of the present season's growth, opposite the leaves. The flowers are small, greenish-white, and fragrant. The fruit is a round or oval berry, two-celled, and four-seeded, which varies in size from about one fourth of an inch in diameter, as in the Corinth or 'currant' grape, to nearly an inch in some of the improved American varieties. The color, which is entirely in the outer skin, may be green, red, yellow, purple, or in some cases variegated. Although the pulp of the grape is wholesome, nutritious, and gently laxative, the skin is as tringent and indigestible. Some of the ovules may be abortive, or even all of them in the fruit of old vines of some varieties, as in the seedless Ascalon or Sultana raisin. The stems sometimes reach a diameter of 18 inches, and the wood, which is very hard and durable, is occasionally employed in making furniture, statues, etc. It attains also a very great age; specimens may remain fruitful for 300 or 400 years. In the Old World Vitis vinifera is the basis of all viticultural interests; in America several native species and hybrids between them and Vitis vinifera are utilized. The grape upon which the vineyards of the Eastern United States are founded is one of the contributions of that region to the economic plants of the world. All early attempts at viticulture were based upon the Old World grapes. As early as 1621 an unsuccessful attempt was made to introduce the European vine into Virginia, and from that time forward numerous other attempts were made. The undertaking of John J. Dufour in 1798 is especially worthy of note. But, like all other undertakings in which European vines were used, Dufour's "Kentucky Vineyard Society," with $10,000 capital, was unsuccessful, although great care was exercised in the execution of every detail in the work. Later, a partial success came as a result of the introduction of the so called 'cape grape,' which is now known to have been an offshoot from the fox grape (Vitis labrus ca). True success came with the introduction by John Adlum of the Catawba, 'the first truly American grape.' This variety ranks foremost among the wine and table grapes of the North eastern United States. The success of grape cul ture in the Eastern United States has grown re markably since 1860, and has reached its greatest perfection, both as regards methods of culture and marketing, in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia, where thousands of acres are devoted to the cultivation of table grapes, although there is a considerable output of wine and brandy in each locality. In the East the end sought is dessert fruit; in the West, wine and raisins.