182 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



who lived in the reign of Augustus, testifies that the vines 

 of Margiana, and in other places, were so big, that two 

 men could scarcely compass them with their arms, and 

 that they produced bunches of grapes two cubits, or a 

 yard, in length. Columella states, that Seneca had a 

 vine which produced him two thousand clusters of grapes 

 in a year. Theophrastus mentions a vine that grew so 

 large, that a statue of Jupiter, and the columns in Juno's 

 temple, were made of it. The great doors of the cathedral 

 at Ravenna are made of vine-tree planks, some of them 

 twelve feet long and fifteen inches broad. 



At Ecoan, at the Duke of Montmorency's house, is a 

 table of large dimensions, made of vine planks. Pliny 

 states, that vines in old times were, on account of their 

 size, ranked among trees. Valerianus Cornelius mentions 

 a vine of one stock that encompassed and surrounded 

 a good farm-house with the branches. Upon the coast 

 of Barbary, enormous vines are now growing, some of 

 them being eight or nine feet in circumference ; and in 

 Persia there are some kinds of grapes so large, that a 

 single one is a mouthful. From what we find in Huetius, 

 Crete, Chios, and other islands in the Archipelago, afford 

 bunches of grapes from ten to forty pounds weight each. 

 Chios, now Scio, has long been celebrated for its vine- 

 yards, and Virgil has immortalized its wines by his pen. 



" The ritual feast shall overflow with wine, . 

 And Chios' richest nectar shall be thine : 

 On the warm hearth, in winter's chilling hour, 

 We'll sacrifice; at summer, in a bower." 



Pliny mentions a vine, in his time, that was six hundred 

 years old; and Miller states, that the vineyards in some 

 parts of Italy hold good above three hundred years. 



It is related, that Rhemnius Palaemon, who was a re- 



