Chap. 35.] CULTURE OF THE VEtfE. 515 



drils 62 have been cut away on every side fresh branches should 

 be trained to run along the stages. In Italy the pruning is so 

 managed that the shoots and tendrils of the vines are arranged 

 so as to cover the branches of the tree, while the shoots of the 

 vine in their turn are surrounded with clusters of grapes. In 

 Gallia, on the other hand, the vine is trained to pass from tree 

 to tree. On the iEmilian Way, again, the vine is seen em- 

 bracing the trunks of the Atinian elms that line the road, 

 while at the same time it carefully avoids their foliage. 63 



It is a mark of ignorance in some persons to suspend the 

 vine with a cord beneath the branches of the tree, to the great 

 risk of stifling it ; for it ought to be merely kept up with a 

 withe of osier, and not tightly laced. Indeed, in those places 

 where the willow abounds, the withes that it affords are pre- 

 ferred, on account of their superior suppleness, while the Sici- 

 lians employ for the purpose a grass, which they call " ampelo- 

 desmos :" 64 throughout the whole of Greece, rushes, cyperus, 

 and sedge 65 are similarly employed. When at any time the 

 vine has been liberated from its bonds, it should be allowed to 

 range uncontrolled for some days, and to spread abroad at 

 pleasure, as well as to recline upon the ground which it has 

 been looking down upon the whole year through. For in the 

 same manner that beasts of burden when released from the 

 yoke, and dogs when they have returned from the chase, love 

 to roll themselves on the ground, just so does the vine delight 

 to stretch its loins. The tree itself, too, seems to rejoice, and, 

 thus relieved from the continuous weight which has burdened 

 it, to have all the appearance of now enjoying a free respira- 

 tion. Indeed, there is no object in all the economy of Nature 

 that does not desire certain alternations for the enjoyment of 

 rest, witness the succession of night and day, for instance. It 

 is for this reason that it is forbidden to prune the vine directly 

 the vintage is over, and while it is still exhausted by the 

 process of reproduction. 



Directly the vine has been pruned, it ought to be fastened 

 again to the tree, but in another place ; for there is no doubt 

 that it feels very acutely the indentations that are made in it 



62 Capreolis. 63 ^ s being too dense and shad v. 



64 From the Greek, meaning the " vine-band." It was, probabiy, a 

 kind of rush. 



65 Fee thinks that he may mean the Festuca fluitans more particularly, 

 by the name ulva. 



