THE GEAPB. 119 



Germany, but "a few feet high, the short, thick stock grown 

 in Spain, or the scrubby bush to which it is dwarfed 

 in Prance, there is much of beauty manifested in the 

 elegant form of the triply-pointed, deeply- serrated leaf, 

 with its strongly-marked network of veins, so dear to 

 ornamentalists in all ages ; in the wild freedom of its 

 curving tendrils ; and, above all, in its shapely and rich- 

 tinted fruit, varying from clear chrysophras green to 

 semi-lucent amber, or rich bloom-clouded purple, like 

 violets seen through mist ; each particular berry blending 

 into one fair cluster, that " bunch of grapes " with which 

 Titian loved to illustrate a perfect composition, every part 

 completely finished in itself, yet not obtruding as a part, 

 but only contributing its share to the completeness of the 

 whole. How graceful, too, are their growth, and the po- 

 sitions which their loose suspension on many stalks per- 

 mits them to assume ! I remember once seeing a cluster 

 whicli had thrown itself over a large gourd with a fling 

 so light and free as to recall in a moment to my mind the 

 attitude of Ariadne on the panther, and prompt almost a 

 conviction that Dannecker must have been indebted to 

 such a source for the suggestion of the exquisite pose of 

 that figure. But it is in Greece or in Italy that the vine 

 is seen in perfection ; where, with all its other charms, is 

 combined that of a display of its natural mode of growth, 

 and, " wedded " to the elm or poplar, it is left free to 

 wreathe itself as it will round the supporting trunk to 

 which it clings, and fling its light festoons in wild luxu- 

 riance from bough to bough. With no dusky rootlets 

 like those which bear something of earthliness into the 

 loftiest aspirings of the ivy ; with no tenacious suckers 

 like the Virginia creeper, adhering with a gripe as of 

 desperation to the surface it climbs ; but only twining its 

 slender tendrils with firm yet tender clasp round the 

 object it embraces, the fertile, loving vine stands forth 

 the truest, fairest type of womanhood. Well might the 

 Psalmist make it his metaphor when he recounts among 

 the chief joys of him whom God hath blessed, " Thy wife 

 shall be like the fruitful vine by the sides of thine house.'' 

 And how was its typical significance deepened when 



