Cliap. 5.] 



CULTUBE OF THE VINE. 233 



lacra : it is of stunted growth, and has branches a cubit in 

 length; the grape is black, about the size of a bean, with a 

 berry that is soft, and remarkably small : the clusters hang in 

 a slanting direction, and are remarkably sweet ; the leaves are 

 small and round, without any division. 20 "Within the last 

 seven years there has been introduced at Alba Helvia, 21 in the 

 province of Gallia Narbonensis, a vine which blossoms but a 

 single day, and is consequently proof against all accidents : 

 the name given to it is " Narbonica," and it is now planted 

 throughout the whole of that province. 



CHAP. 5. (4.) EEMAREABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 



CULTURE OF THE VINE. 



The elder Cato, who was rendered more particularly illus- 

 trious by his triumph 23 and the censorship, and even more so 

 by his literary fame, and the precepts which he has given to 

 the Eoman people upon every subject of utility, and the 

 proper methods of cultivation in particular ; a man who, by 

 the universal confession, was the first husbandman of his age 

 and without a rival — has mentioned a few varieties only of 

 the vine, the very names of some of which are by this utterly 

 forgotten. 23 His statement on this subject deserves our 

 separate consideration, and requires to be quoted at length, in 

 order that we may make ourselves acquainted with the differ- 

 ent varieties of this tree that were held in the highest esteem 

 in the year of the City of Rome 600, about the time of the 

 capture of Carthage and Corinth, the period of his death : it 

 will show too, what great advances civilization has made in 

 the last two hundred and thirty years. The following are the 

 remarks which he has made on the subject of the vine and the 

 grape. 



20 As the leaves of the vine are universally divided, it has been considered 

 by many of the commentators that this is not in reality a vine, but the 

 Arbutus uva ursi of Linnaeus. The fruit, however, of that ericaceous 

 plant is remarkably acrid, and not sweet, as Pliny states. Fee rejects this 

 solution. 



21 Aubenas, in the Vivarais, according to Hardouin ; Alps, according to 

 Brotier. We must reject this assertion as fabulous. 



22 In B.C. 194, for his successes in Spain. 



23 Mode of culture, locality, climate, and other extraneous circumstances, 

 work, no doubt, an entire change in the nature of the vine. 



