226 
PLINX'S I^ATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book Xiy. 
ness, are its great protection against the disastrous effects of 
hail. 
The grapes known as " helvolae"^^ are remarkable for the 
peculiarity of their colour, which is a sort of midway between 
purple and black, but varies so frequently that it has made 
some persons give them the name of varianae." Of the two 
sorts of helvolge, the black is the one generally preferred : they 
both of them produce every other year, but the wine is best 
when the vintage has been less abundant. 
The vine that is known as the precia" ^ is also divided, 
into two varieties, distinguished by the size of the grape. 
These vines produce a vast quantity of wood, and the grape is 
very good for preserving in jars;^^ the leaves are similar in 
appearance to that of parsley.^^ The people of Dyrrhachium 
hold in high esteem the vine known as the basilica," the 
same which in Spain is called the cocolobis."^''' The grapes 
of this vine grow in thin clusters, and it can stand great heat, 
and the south winds. The wine produced from it is apt to fly 
to the head the produce of the vine is very large. Th6 
people in Spain distinguish two kinds of this vine, the one 
with the oblong, the other with the round grape ; they gather 
this fruit the very last of all. The sweeter the cocolobis is, 
the more it is valued ; but even if it has a rough taste, the wine 
will become sweet by keeping, while, on the other hand, that 
which was sweet at first, will acquire a certain roughness ; it 
is in this last state that the wine is thought to rival that of 
Alba.^^ It is said that the juice of this grape is remarkably 
efficacious when drunk as a specific for diseases of the bladder. 
53 By this name it would be understood that they were of an inter- 
mediate colour between rose and white, a not uncommon colour in the 
grape. Pliny, however, says otherwise, and he is supported by Columella. 
C. Bauhin took this to mean one of the garden currant trees, the 
Ribes uva crispa of Linnseus, called by Bauhin Grossularia simplici acino, 
or else Spinosa agrestis. But, as Fee observes, the ancients were not so 
ignorant as to confound a vine with a currant-bush. 
Like the Portuguese grapes of the present day. 
5^ Crisped and indented. 
57 This variety, according to Christian de la Vega, was cultivated 
abundantly in Grenada. The word cocolab^ according to some, meant, 
cock's comb. It is mentioned as a Spanish word by Columella. 
58 Dalechamps says, that a similar wine was made at Montpellier, and 
that it was called " piquardant.'* 
59 See B. xxiii. cc. 20, 21. 
