1892 The flowing bowl when and what to drink (1892, c1891)

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ASIA is undoubtedly the country where the vine has grown without the helping hand of man, and very prob- ably the slopes south of the Caucasus, where still now- adays, as in the Kolchian forest, the vine grows in abundance and richness. on his journey to Cabul, saw in the Caucasian forests the vine growing wild, and describes how fascinating to the eye the en- tanglement and coverings of whole forests by the vine appeared. Modern travelers report of bunches of grapes of seventeen pounds in Palestine, and of a vine- tree on the southern slope of the Lebanon Mountains, the diameter of which was one foot and a half; it was thirty feet high, and formed, by its twigs and boughs, a canopy of two hundred feet in circumference. In the vicinity of Naples you may see vines, the stems of which are only a little thinner than the trees to which they cling. As to the size of grapes, they are naturally larger under the glowing sun of the south. Already in we see exceedingly large bunches; still larger Elphinstone born 1778, died 1859 Italy they are found in Greece and Asia Minor. raz, in Persia, their length amounts to a yard. Baron De Huegel found them of colossal size in Cashmere. Near Shi-