BOOK III. II. 29-31 



neither the number nor the names with assurance. 

 And, indeed, as the poet says," 



to know their number is of no concern. 

 One who would know of this might also wish to 



learn 

 How many grains of Libyan sand by western 



breeze are stirred. 



For all countries and almost all separate districts 30 

 of those countries have their peculiar types of vines, 

 which they designate according to their own fashion ; 

 some vine-stocks also have changed their names along 

 with the places where they are grown ; and some, 

 as I said above, have so far departed from their 

 peculiar character, through a change of place, as to 

 be unrecognizable. And so in our own Italy, not 

 to speak of the whole far-flung world, neighbouring 

 peoples disagree in the names of vines, and their 

 designations vary. Therefore it is a mark of the wise 31 

 teacher not to retard his students with quibbling 

 over a list of names of a sort which it is impossible 

 to master, but in general to lay down as a precept 

 what Celsus says, and Marcus Cato before him — that 

 no kind of vine should be planted except that approved 

 by common report, and that none should be kept 

 for any length of time unless proved by test. And 

 where the many advantages of a particular region 

 invite us to plant a superior vine, we shall search 

 out one of good origin, says Julius Graecinus; where 

 there is nothing at all or not much to encourage us, 

 we shall look rather for fruitfulness, which is not ex- 

 celled in worth to the same degree that it excels 



« Vergil, Georg. II. 104-106. 



251 



