Botanists have never agreed as to whether _Vitis vinifera_ is a single species or a combination of two or more species which has been cultivated for so long that it is impossible to discover the original forms. The name, _Vitis vinifera_, is usually credited to Linnaeus though it was used for this grape before Linnaeus' time by Bauhin and possibly by others. The description of Linnaeus accompanying the name is very short, as follows: Leaves sinuately lobed, glabrous. Many of the earlier botanists, Tournefort for one, described numerous varieties as though they were species. As a natural corollary of the uncertainty of the botanical status of _Vitis vinifera_ the original habitat of the species is not positively known. De Candolle, as noted in the first part of this work, considered the region about the Caspian Sea as the probable habitat of the Old World grape. There is but little doubt that the original home of _Vitis vinifera_ is some place in western Asia. There is strong corroborative evidence of this in the fact that the climatic conditions under which the species flourishes are such as are there found. The first chapter in _The Grapes of New York_ has been devoted to this, the Old World grape, and for a discussion of the horticultural characters of the species and of the efforts to cultivate it in America, the reader is referred to that chapter. Neither American nor European writers agree as to the exact climate desired by Vinifera for the reason, probably, that all of the varieties in this variable species do not desire the same conditions. There are certain phases of climate, however, that are well agreed upon, as follows: The species requires a warm, dry climate, and is more sensitive to change of temperature than our American species. Stayman, who had had considerable experience in raising Vinifera grapes in different places, says: Vinifera "will not endure much rain or grow on wet land. It is only in a dry climate and on high rolling situations that it will succeed, where there is not more than 31 inches of an annual rainfall and for the growing and maturing season 15 inches." So far as soil alone is concerned, the French growers tell us that it can be grown successfully in a wide variety of soils, being much less particular in this respect than our American species. They state that it will withstand and grow successfully in soils so strongly impregnated with lime that any of the American sorts would succumb to chlorosis.