transmit
their characters by seed,[618] whilst others are extremely variable,
the existence of many different escaped forms could hardly fail to
occur in countries where this plant has been cultivated from the
remotest antiquity. That the vine varies much when propagated by seed,
we may infer from the largely increased number of varieties since the
earlier historical records. New hot-house varieties are produced almost
every year; for instance,[619] a golden-coloured variety has been
recently raised in England from a black grape without the aid of a
cross. {333} Van Mons[620] reared a multitude of varieties from the
seed of one vine, which was completely separated from all others, so
that there could not, at least in this generation, have been any
crossing, and the seedlings presented "les analogues de toutes les
sortes," and differed in almost every possible character both in the
fruit and foliage.

The cultivated varieties are extremely numerous; Count Odart says that
he will not deny that there may exist throughout the world 700 or 800,
perhaps even 1000 varieties, but not a third of these have any value.
In the Catalogue of fruit cultivated in the Horticultural Gardens of
London, published in 1842, 99 varieties are enumerated. Wherever the
grape is grown many varieties occur: Pallas describes 24 in the Crimea,
and Burnes mentions 10 in Cabool. The classification of the varieties
has much perplexed writers, and Count Odart is reduced to a
geographical system; but I will not enter on this subject, nor on the
many and great differences between the varieties. I will merely specify
a few curious and trifling peculiarities, all taken from Odart's highly
esteemed work,[621] for the sake of showing the diversified variability
of this plant. Simon has classed grapes into two main divisions, those
with downy leaves and those with smooth leaves, but he admits that in
one variety, namely the Rebazo, the leaves are either smooth or downy;
and Odart (p. 70) states that some varieties have the nerves alone, and
other varieties their young leaves, downy, whilst the old ones are
smooth. The Pedro-Ximenes grape (Odart, p. 397) presents a peculiarity
by which it can be at once recognised amongst a host of other
varieties, namely, that when the fruit is nearly ripe the nerves of the
leaves or even t