SIZE OF THE VIMS. ^7 



Valerianus Cornelius mentions a vine that encompassed and 

 surrounded a good farm house with its branches, and Colu- 

 mella states that Seneca had a vine which produced him two 

 thousand bunches of grapes in a year. 



But although it is but latterly that the attention of our 

 country has been particularly drawn to the culture of the 

 grape, and but ten years have elapsed since our native " Isa- 

 bella" was brought into notice, I doubt not there are vines 

 now to be found covering as many square yards as those be- 

 fore enumerated, and which have even produced as many clus- 

 ters of fruit, although the diameter of the stock is not in any 

 case one-fourth of the size to which the former had attained. 

 The native Catawba, the Alexander, the Scuppernon, and va- 

 rious others, are of such rapid growth, that it needs but a few 

 years to form vines of equal extent and produce with those so 

 famed by the ancients and moderns of other climes. 



Size of the vine. 



The vine is considered and classed as a trailing shrub, yet 

 there are numerous instances where, in a wild state, it has ar- 

 rived at great dimensions, and there are even cases where it has 

 done so (though to a less degree), when subjected to the cul- 

 ture bestowed on it by man, several instances of which have 

 been already enumerated. 



The size to which the trunk or stem sometimes attains is so 

 great, as to have been formed into planks of fifteen inches in 

 breadth, and also to have been used in furniture and statues. 

 The wood is of the greatest durability, and Pliny states that 

 none is of a more lasting nature, and that vines were with justice 

 in olden times, on account of their great size, ranked among trees. 

 Both he and Theophrastus also make mention of a vine which 

 had attained a bulk sufficient to make a statue of Jupiter, for 

 the city of Apollonium ; and the columns for Juno's temple at 

 Metapont were also made of the vine. The great doors of the 

 cathedral of Ravenna were also made of vine planks, some of 

 which are twelve feet long and fourteen to fifteen inches broad. 



