The islands in the Bay of Naples all produce wine; that of _Caprea_ is of good ordinary quality, both white and red. Calabria furnishes many good wines. _Muscadenes_ and dry wines are made at Reggio. _Asprino_, a white foamy wine, with a pleasant sharpness, is a favourite of the Campagna. _Carigliano_ is a Muscadine, with a flavour of fennel. Dr. Charnock speaks highly of the wine of Capri, and of Orvieto, a delicate white wine of Rome. The disagreement of travellers about the merits of wines arises principally, of course, from a diversity of tastes, but also in the matter of Italian wines, from the fact that different wines bear the same names in different countries. There is, for instance, a _vino santo_ and a _vino greco_ in Naples. A Veronese wine, _vino debolissimo e di niuna stima_, is also called _vino santo_, and an excellently good wine at Brescia. It is the same with half a dozen of the most noted wines of Italy. _Modico_, a fine white wine from the place of that name near Salerno, was apparently a favourite of the noted School of Salernum. The best known wines out of Italy are the _Barola_, _Barbera_, and the rest which may be found on the wine-list of every _padrone_ of an Italian restaurant; the _Inferno_ of the Valtellina; the _Lambrusco_ of Modena; the _Chianti_ of Tuscan—a wine grown on the estate of Baron Ricasoli, not thought so much of in Italy as in England; and the _Lacryma Christi_ of Naples. Most Italian wines are bottled in flasks, in the old Roman style, with oil[36] on the top, and wool over the oil. MADEIRA. Wine is first mentioned as a product of Funchal, the capital of Madeira, in the fifteenth century. In 1662, when Charles II. married the Infanta Catherine of Bragança, English merchants began to settle in Madeira. The principal varieties of Madeira are _Malvasia_, _Bual_, _Sercial_, _Tinta_, and _Verdelho_ (the _Verdea_ of Tuscany). In England, Madeira is now within the reach of all. At the beginning of this century, it was known only to connoisseurs. The “fine rich old _Boal_” is fairly familiar, and if we may trust the wine merchants, the “Very Superior Old,” variously described as full, soft, golden, delicate, and mellow, is gradually winning its way into public favour, since that same “soft fulness,” added to a delicious and yet pungent flavour, produces a drink “altogether superior” to the best Sherry. PERSIA.