Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



Of the vineyard there were two types. For one 

 type the technical name seems to have been ' vinea,' 

 though usage is not quite consistent. In this the 

 vines either crept along the ground or were held up 

 by short sticks — Shakespeare's ' pole-clipt vinyard.' 

 Both methods survive in Italy, the sticks nowadays 

 being often a tripod of bamboo canes. This system 

 reduces labour, but the vines are more liable to damage 

 from hailstorms. It does not appear that Virgil men- 

 tions it, his use of the name ' vinea ' being merely 

 for metrical convenience, and his principles would 

 involve a preference for the * vinetum' or ' arbustum,' 

 as it was sometimes called. In this the vines were 

 trained to trees, usually elms (Ec. ii. 70 ; Ge. i. 2 ; 

 ib. ii. 221). The only other tree mentioned by Virgil 

 is a willow (Ec. x. 40), but many others were occa- 

 sionally used. The plane was rejected rather for its 

 shaling bark than for its large leaves, for in well- 

 managed vineyards no more leaves were allowed on 

 the supporting tree than served to keep it alive 

 (Ge. ii. 400; Ec. ii. 70). Indeed, when the soil 

 was thin only a single shoot was allowed to grow 

 from the top of the trunk. On the other hand, in 

 rich soil it was usual to have a system of trained 

 branches. 



On this method the young vines were at first 

 trained to reeds, or poles, or folded sticks (ib. 358 sq.), 

 which reached up to the lowest tier of branches, the 

 name for the tiers being ' tabulata,' or stories. The 

 interval between the tiers was not less than three 

 feet, and no branch was immediately under one in 



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