36 gilptn's forest scenery. 



spiral coil, it may compress the young tree too 

 tightly, and, in some degree, injure its circula- 

 tion, yet it fully compensates the injury by the 

 beauty and fragrancy of its flowers : — 



' With, clasping tendrils it invests the branch, 

 Else unadorn'd, with many a gay festoon, 

 And fragrant chaplet ; recompensing well 

 The strength it borrows with the grace it lends.' 



Under warm suns, where Yines are the off- 

 spring of Nature, nothing can be more beautiful 

 than the forest tree, adorned with their twisting 

 branches, hanging from bough to bough, and 

 laden with fruit,— 



' The clusters clear 

 Half through the foliage seen,' 



In the road between Pisa and Florence, Dr. 

 Smollet informs us, the country is often thus 

 adorned. The Vines are not planted in rows, and 

 propped with sticks, as in France and the county 

 of Nice, but twine naturally around the hedge- 

 row trees, which they almost cover with their 

 foliage and fruit. Extending from tree to tree, 

 they exhibit beautiful festoons of leaves, tendrils 

 and swelling clusters, black and white, hanging 



