Vitis

(vi'tis.) (Bot.) A gen. of the O. Vitaceæ, composed of a considerable number of species, including the well-known Grape-Vine, which is its most familiar and, in an economic point of view, most important representative. It has a wide geographical range, but is principally found in the Northern Hemisphere, the majority of its species being natives of Tropical and Temperate Asia, and North America, while none are indigenous to Europe. All the species are climbers, furnished with tendrils opposite the leaves, as in the Grape-Vine; the leaves of some being simple and either undivided or variously lobed, and of others compound. Their small greenish flowers are disposed in panicles set opposite the leaves. The most important products of the Grape-Vine are Wine (derived from the Celtic gwin) and Vinegar-the one obtained by vinous and the other by ace to us fermentation of the juice of the fruit; Brandy, a product of distillation; and Currants (Corinths) and Raisins, both of which are the dried fruits-the former being those of a particular small variety, the culture of which is chiefly confined to the Ionian Islands. These severally form very important articles of commerce throughout the civilized world. The Grape-Vine is a native of the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and of Armenia and Car a mania. Its cultivation dates from after the Flood: 'Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.' From Asia, according to Humboldt, the vine pa ed into Greece, and thence into Sicily. It was early carried into France by the Phocæans, when those Ionian colonists fled from the power of Cyrus, and founded the city of Marseille, about 540 B. C. Several varieties of the European species V. vinifera are very succe fully cultivated in California, but they generally do not succeed east of the Rocky Mountains. The N. American species V. labrusca the Northern Fox-grape, V. vulpina the Southern Fox-grape or Muscadine, V. æstivalis the Summer-grape, and V. riparia the River Bank grape, are extensively cultivated in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Mi ouri, and some other States of the American Union, and very good wines are produced. Besides the vine mildew (see OIDIUM), the vine has, of late years, become subject to a disease caused by an insect called the Grape-leaf Gall-louse (Phylloxera vitifolia), which destroys not only the crop but also the plant itself. [s. 942]