Illustrations of Minerals, Insects, Herbs, and Trees, Volume 33

Is it perhaps like the relationship between the trifoliate orange and the mandarin? The author is comparing the relationship between different varieties of grapes to other well-known fruit look-alikes. Su Gong says: The Wild Grape YingyuThe Vitis adstricta, or wild mountain grape. is simply the "Mountain Grape." Its shoots and leaves are similar, and it can also be used to make wine. For making grape wine, one takes the juice of the fruit; Tao Hongjing’s claim that one uses the sap of the vine is an error.

Su Song says: Nowadays, they are found in the Hedong region and the prefectures near Bianzhou Modern-day Kaifeng, Henan province.. The shoots form vines that are extremely long. Where they flourish most, one or two plants can blanket entire mountain valleys. The flowers are tiny and yellowish-white. The fruit comes in two colors, purple and white. Some are round like pearls, some are long like horse-teats referring to the elongated "Horse-Teat" variety, and some are seedless. They all ripen in the seventh or eighth month. Their juice can be gathered to brew wine.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian: In the kingdom of Dayuan An ancient state in the Fergana Valley of Central Asia., they brew wine from grapes. Wealthy families store over ten thousand shi A traditional unit of volume; ten thousand shi is an immense quantity, roughly 600,000 liters. of wine, which does not spoil even after several decades. When the diplomat Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions, he obtained the seeds and brought them back to China; only then did they become more common here. It is the most precious of the northern fruits. Today, the people of Taiyuan still produce this wine to be sent to distant places.

The roots and stems are hollow and interconnected. If one waters the roots in the evening, by the next morning the water will have soaked into the fruit. This describes the plant's efficient vascular system for transporting water. Therefore, the common folk call its shoots "Wood-Passage" MutongNot to be confused with the medicinal herb Akebia; here it refers to the grape vine's ability to "pass" water through its wood. because of this property of promoting the flow of fluids in the small intestine. In the Jiangdong region, there is a variety with small, sour fruit called the Wild Grape.

Kou Zongshi says: Duan Chengshi stated that grapes come in three colors: yellow, white, and black. The Official History of the Tang records that those produced in Persia are as large as hen’s eggs. This fruit is extremely difficult to dry; if not dried, it cannot be stored. Regardless of the soil where they grow, they can all be harvested to brew wine.

Li Shizhen says: Grapes are most easily propagated by layering broken vines in the soil. In the spring months, the buds sprout and grow leaves quite similar to those of the Chinese snake gourd Gualou, but with five points. They grow tendrils and spread their vines, extending as far as a hundred feet. In the third month, small flowers bloom in clusters, yellowish-white in color. They remain attached to the fruit, which cluster together like stars or pearls. They ripen in the seventh or eighth month, appearing in purple or white varieties. The people of the West and... The text breaks off here and continues on the next page.