Mr. Editor:- It has been a source of much reflection to me, what the cause may be that, in all the vast tract of country from, the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast, the true wine grape ( Vitis vinifera) will not grow, as it is perhaps the only plant that will accommodate itself to any clime and soil elsewhere all over the world. Even in parts where the summers are too short to ripen its fruit, the plant itself will grow healthy and live, which is not the case here.

Immediately west of the Rocky Mountains, in California, the vine does well, and cuttings sent there and planted in the open air have borne fruit the second season. A little south of Florida, also, at St. Croix, there is a beautiful vineyard on the mountain, which produces most delicious fruit; and a gentleman here who lived a number of years at St. Thomas, told me that he had a Chasselas Blanc there in his garden which bore annually four crops for sixteen years, after which time it was exhausted and died. Even near the equator, in a country where a pair of blackened boots will be covered with mould in thirty-six hours, I have found at Paramaribo, in the garden of Mr. Trask, the American consul, the Chasselas in a healthy state, and ripening its fruit well. But, strange to say, I had a vine of our Alexander, or Schuylkill Muscatel, as it is often called, and planted it there, which, during the rainy season, became perfectly covered with moss, and the Chasselas remained perfectly clean. The locality of both these vines was alike.

In my opinion, the cause of our non-success with the foreign grape-vine in the open air, lies in the peculiarity of our atmosphere during the summer season; it has something singularly oppressive and sultry, even in the shade, which we do not find elsewhere. It is our summer, not the winter, which kills the foreign grape-vine here. In California, in the West Indies, in Guiana, we find it hot in the sun, but always pleasant in the shade. Here is the difference; but what the real cause of the difference is, we shall not soon be able to discover.

[A mystery surrounds this subject, and that mystery gives it a peculiar interest. The results are sufficiently uniform and apparent; the cause, it must be acknowledged, is not well understood. The facts are stated correctly by Mr. B. There can be little doubt, we think, that the wine grape is constitutionally unfitted to endure the extreme and sudden changes of our climate. It is not the winter's cold or the summer's heat that proves fatal, but excessive variations of temperature. We shall have occasion soon to discuss this whole subject. - Ed].