The American Encyclopaedia of Commerce, Manufactures, Commercial Law, and Finance Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...the most esteeined. The gt-ape is a comH10" lfllllv but Wine is not made from it on account of the prohibition of.lohamined. The i-'oivoom is celebrated for its grapes, and chieliy supplies the market of (Yiiiro. The most common grape is white, of which there is a small kind far superior to the ordinary sort. The black grapes are large, but coniparatively tasteless. The vines are trailed on trelli-work, and form agreeable avenues in the gardens of Cairo; but little attention is paid to their culture, the common fault of l'lgyptian agriculture and gardening, due to the generosity of nature and the liidolence of the iiiliahitaiits. The best-known fruits, besidesdatea and grapes. are fig.-1, sycamore-figs, and pomegranates, apricots and peaches, oranges and citroiis, lemons and limes, bananas, which are believed to be of the fruits of Paradise (being always in season), different kinds of melons (including some of aromatic flavor, and the refreshing watermelon), 312 EGYPT mulberries, Indian tigs or prickly pears, the fruit of the lotus, and olives. Many of these are excellent, especially the figs and melons. The trees and plants which produce most of them are chiefly confined to the gardens. The cactus, bearing the Indian fig. is extremely common, and forms the hedges of gardens and plantations. The vegetables, etc., are very coinmon and of various kinds, so that we cannot wonder that the children of Israel longed for them in the desert. The principal are beans, pease, vetches, lentils (of which a pottage is made, which is the common food of the Nile boatmen), lupines, chick-pease, the loobiyeh (Doliclios Iubia), fenugreek, niallows, the baniiyeh (Hibiscus esculnitus), spinach, puriilain, niclooltheeyeh (Corclwrus olitorius), leeks, ...