220 
plint's natural history. 
[Book XIV. 
So numerous are the varieties of the vine which even Italy 
alone presents. 
In some of the provinces the vine is able to stand of itself 
without anything to support it, drawing in its bending 
branches, and making up in its thickness for its stunted size. 
In other places, again, the winds will not allow of this mode of 
culture, as in Africa, for instance, and various parts of the 
province of Gallia Narbonensis. These vines, being prevented 
from growing beyond the first branches, and hence always 
retaining a resemblance to those plants which stand in need > 
of the hoe, trail along the ground just like them, and every 
here and there suck^^ up the juices from the earth to fill their 
grapes : it is in consequence of this, that in the interior of Africa 
the clusters^ are known to exceed the body of an infant in size. 
The wine of no country is more acid than those of Africa, but 
there is nowhere to be found a grape that is more agreeable 
for its firmness, a circumstance which may very probably have 
given rise to its name of the **hard grape.^'^^ As to the 
varieties of the grape, although they are rendered innumerable 
by the size, the colour, and the flavour of the berry, they are 
multiplied even still more by the wines that they produce. . 
In one part they are lustrous with a rich purple colour, while 
in another, again, they glow with a rosy tint, or else are glossy 
with their verdant hue. The grapes that are merely white 
or black are the common sorts. The bumastus^^ swells out 
in form like a breast, while that known as the dactylus,"^' 
has a berry of remarkable length. IS'ature, too, displays such 
varieties in these productions of hers, that small grapes are 
often to be found adhering to the largest vines, but of sur- 
passing sweetness ; they are known by the name of lep- 
torragaB.'*^ Some, again, will keep throughout the winter, if 
care is taken to hang them to the ceiling^^ with a string ; 
^9 By tlirowing out fresTi shoots every here and there. Fee, however, 
seems to think that he means that the grapes themselves, as they trail 
along the ground, suck up the juices with their pores. These are known 
in France as "running vines," and are found in Berry and Anjou. 
20 He must evidently be speaking of the size of the bunches. See the 
account of the grapes of Canaan, in Numbers xiii. 24. 
21 ^' Durus acinus," or, according to some readings, " duracinus.^' 
~2 From the Greek povfiacFrog, a cow's teat, mentioned by Virgil, Georg. 
ii. 102. 23 Or finger-grape. 
From the Greek XeTrropaysQy " small-berried." 
2^ Pcnsili concainarata3 nodo. ' 
