the latter being upset in storms. Bartram describes the Grape vines, the twining Zizyphus, the ashleaved trumpet-flower, the cross-bearing trumpetflower, and other climbing vegetables, as tying together the trees in the forests of Carolina and Georgia with garlands and festoons, which form enchanting shades. This author observes of the grape-vines, that "from their bulk and strength, one would imagine they are combined to pull down those mighty trees to the earth, when, in fact, amongst other good purposes, they serve to uphold them. They are frequently nine, ten, and twelve inches in diameter, and twine round the trunks of the trees, climb to their very tops, and then spread along their limbs, from tree to tree, throughout the forest."

"In some of the woods and swamps of America, the laurel-leaved smilax forms a most troublesome obstacle to persons passing. It runs, by means of its cirri, up trees and bushes, and extends from one to another so as to bar all passage, or else obliges the traveller to creep through the interstices left near the ground, where he runs a great chance of being bitten by serpents. It often occasions the deepest shade in the woods. The nebees, or ligneous ropes, which Stedman describes as being numerous in the forests of Surinam, are very singular productions, and seem to be the stems of some voluble plant, most probably a calamus. They not only twine around the trees to their tops, but when arrived there, hang down till they reach the earth, then strike root, and again climb the neighbouring trunks, and thus spread from tree to tree, to a great extent. Sometimes, they twine around each other, forming ropes as thick as a ship's cable, which they perfectly resemble, being at least as tough, and not presenting any appearance of foliage. When they ascend trees in this state, the latter are often killed by their weight and compression. The smaller nebees are sometimes so interwoven and crossed, that they resemble fishing-nets. The larger are like ropes of various dimensions, and make the forest, accord

ing to Stedman's comparison, look like a "fleet at anchor." The same writer mentions, that these nebees are exceedingly tough, and may be used for "mooring large vessels to the shore." They seem, indeed, to be in all respects similar to the Bejucos of South America, which are used for lashing and tying various kinds of merchandise, and for making cables or hawsers for the balzas or small vessels of that country.-Drummond's First Steps to Botany, p. 67, Second Edition.

A beautiful and rare variety of the common comfrey was gathered by MR. CURTIS upon Sandown Marshes, in the Isle of Wight, in the middle of September 1826: several specimens had flowers of the richest purple, while those of others were entirely green. This elegant plant is figured in plate 155 of Mr. Curtis's British Entomology, and, we would add, Botanical Register; for the exquisitely faithful representations of plants which adorn this work, form no small part of its attractions.

The larva of the privet hawk-moth may now be found on the privet shrub, and its elegant appearance affords a contrast to the uninviting form of many of the caterpillar tribe. See T.T. for 1824, p. 248. The Phalana russula and the saffron butterfly appear in this month. The sulphur butterfly also will frequently be seen in the bright mornings of September, flitting about the gay flowers of our gardens."That pretty insect, Medeterus regius (says Mr. Curtis), I first observed resting upon the trunks of trees in the romantic neighbourhood of Lynmouth, North Devon, in the middle of September; and the beginning of the same month, in 1826, I met with it in abundance, near Black-Gang Chine, in the Isle of Wight. The face of the cliff, in this neighbourhood, is perpendicular, and very wet, the water frequently descending in showers from the top: in these situations both sexes of this species delighted, flying, when disturbed, through the falling spray, and alighting upon the wet surface, from which they stood perfectly

clear by placing their long legs not obliquely, but at right angles from the body.'-Curtis's British Entomology, p. 162, b.

In September and October the grape-harvest, or vintage, takes place in those countries where wine is the usual beverage of the inhabitants, or where it becomes an object of extensive commerce to the grower and manufacturer, as in France, on the banks of the Rhine, &c. &c.-The words, wine, Eng. wein, Germ. vin, Fr. vinum, Lat. and orvos, Gr. claim their common origin from , iin, Hebr. the first Jod being, on account of repetition, pronounced as v, ou, or w, making vin, ouin, or win. Wine is mentioned for the first time in the Bible, Gen. ix, 21. In Psalm civ, 5, the inspired Lyric declares that it maketh glad the heart of man; and this eulogium has never been contradicted, as far as wine is drunk with relative moderation; yet, when taken to excess, this gladness of heart suddenly turns into madness of mind. If from Holy Writ we turn our eyes towards the works of heathen writers, it will appear doubtful whether the golden age did ever know this' heartcheering' juice. They speak of streams of milk, of nectar, and even of wine, but not a word about cultivated grapes; from which circumstance, and other inductions, we may fairly conclude that the birth of the god of wine was coetaneous with that of the god of war. They also tell us that the vine-tree was brought from Persia to the Phoenicians, who took it to Greece, Sicily, and Italy; and Plutarch states, that from Etruria it was carried to the Gauls. Laying aside the records of fabulous ages, the expedition of Bacchus to the Ganges, the tragic death of the abstemious Pentheus, and other stories more amusing than true, we can safely assert, for we really believe, that in Greece wine was known before the Trojan war, and even more than 1500 years before the Christian era.

In the 9th book of the Odyssey we find, that, long

before Homer's time, a distinction had already been established between good and bad wine; since, when the crafty Ulysses presents the intoxicating cup to Polyphemus, the gourmet-like Cyclop evinces directly his discriminating sense of taste. Hesiod, in the second book of his Works and Days,' shows that the cultivation of the vinc-tree was well known in his time; for he gives directions about the vintage, and advises Perse in the following words:

Orion now, and Sirius, adorn

The midnight sky: now rosy-fingered morn
Spies bright Arcturus rising from the deep.

Cull, then, bring home your ripened grapes; and keep
Them full exposed ten long days to the sun.

Wine was deservedly praised by all nations. Virgil made the cultivation of the grape the subject of part of his Georgics, B. II; and, from Anacreon to our contemporaries, it became the theme of the poet's song, and the shrub which produces it, the object of the cares and protection of princes and monarchs. Domitian, that monster who,' says a gastrographer, 'ought to have been immolated on the altar of Bacchus, ordered all the vineyards in Gallia to be rooted up; but the Emperor Probus, much deserving of that name, ordered them to be re-planted.' In 1175, the Duke of Aquitaine (afterwards Richard I) prohibited, in Guienne, the stealing of a single bunch of grapes in a vineyard, under the penalty of five solidi, or the loss of one ear, if the fellow had any left.' Before, and even since, the introduction of Gascoygne' wine into this island, vineyards were well cultivated, and thriving in several parts of the kingdom; for we find that a certain quantity of wine is ordered to be paid instead of rent to the chief lord of a vineyard-Vinagium, i. e. Tributum à vino. But, in course of time, Bacchus courteously gave room for the pursuits of Ceres, and the golden harvest of corn superseded the purple produce of the vintage.

Enotechny; or, the art of making wine.—It is an erroneous idea to suppose that white wine is exclusively the produce of white grapes. Fermentation alone determines the colour. The juice contained in both the white and red grape is nearly as colourless as water; except in one peculiar species, which is called the dyer, raisin teinturier,' the liquor of which is of a purple hue, as deep as that of the mulberry. It is used as an auxiliary to deepen the tint of red wine. If the juice of the grapes, which have been gently pressed by the feet of men in the tub at the vineyard, is drawn off in casks, and allowed to ferment without the skin, the seeds, and the stalks, which contain the colouring elements, the wine will certainly be white. On the contrary, if the liquor is left to ferment with them, the wine must be red. If the fermentation of the white liquid is stopped in proper time, the wine becomes brisk and sparkling, on account of the quantity of fixed air which is confined within it; if this air, a sort of gas, is permitted to evaporate, the wine becomes still and quiet: in this, with a few practical exceptions, consists the whole mystery. Wines require more or less time to ripen in the casks, in order to let the lees settle at the bottom; and the art principally lies in the knowledge of the proper time to bottle the wine. A thick crust does not always show that the wine is good, but often that it has been bottled too soon. White wines produce no crust; a proof that the grossest parts are lodged in the skin, seeds, and stalks of the grapes. The practice of clarifying wine, before it is bottled off, by means of whites of eggs, was known to the ancients. But Horace, though a practical gourmet, was not well acquainted with the theory of the art, for he mistakes (Sat. II, 4) the yolk for the white, as used for this purpose.

Nomenclature.-Several authors of tried knowledge have, in other countries as well as in this, written scientific and interesting dissertations upon the wines