A collection of the vines of France has, however, under the administration of Chaptal, since been made, and there are now in the nursery of the Luxenbourg, no fewer than 1400 different varieties, of which, 1000 are so distinct, as to merit a particular description.
It was thus, not without reason, that he and his colleagues, in the first work on the vine, should have considered, as chimerical, any attempt to procure in one province the wines of another, by the transplantation of the varieties which produced them. "No plant," say they, "is so subject to vary in its forms, and the quality of its products, as the vine. It is, in fact, so fickle in its characters, that a difference in the heat of the atmosphere, in the nature of the soil, or in the exposure, suffices in causing such modifications, as to make it difficult of recognition in its forms or qualities. Why, besides, seek from a distance the plants which you have so near at hand? For there exists not any wine district in France, in which are not found collected, all the varieties which you wish to obtain elsewhere. They may neither have, it is true, the same name, nor the same taste, nor the same qualities. What imports it? They are there, notwithstanding. If it is by the effect of their degeneration, or regeneration, that they cannot be recognised,
