228 
PLINY's ]S"ATUEAL histoet. 
[Book XIV. 
wrong, and the anxiety to force it to put forth its shoots ; a 
mode of treatment, he thinks, which absorbs all its fertility, 
unless the soil in which it is planted happens to be remarkably 
rich, and by its support prevents it from being exhausted. It 
is said that this vine is never carbuncled,^^ a remarkable qua- 
lity, if, indeed, it really is the fact that there is any vine in 
existence that is exempt from the natural influences of the 
climate. 
The spionia, by some called the " spinea,"^^ is able to bear 
heat very well, and thrives in the autumn and rainy weather : 
indeed, it is the only one among all the 'vines that does well 
amid fogs, for which reason it is peculiar to the territory of 
Eavenna.^"^ The venicula is one of those that blossom the 
strongest, and its grapes are particularly well adapted for pre- 
serving in jars. The Campanians, however, prefer to give it 
the name of scircula,*' while others, again, call it stacula." 
Tarracina has a vine known as the numisiana;" it has no 
qualities of its own, but has characteristics just according to 
the nature of the soil in which it is planted : the wine, how- 
ever, if kept in the earthen casks of Surrentum, is remark- 
able for its goodness, that is to say, as far south as Vesuvius. 
On arriving in that district, we find the Murgentina,*^^ the very 
best among all those that come from Sicily. Some, indeed, 
call the vine Pompeiana,^'"^^ and it is more particularly fruitful 
when grown in Latium, just as the ^'horconia"*^^ is productive 
nowhere but in Campania. Of a contrary nature is the vine 
known as the argeica," and by Yirgil called argitis i''*^* 
it makes the ground all the more''^'^ productive, and is remark- 
et See B. xvii. c. 37. 
®^ Or *' thorny" vine. Fee queries why it should be thus called, 
e^ This humid, marshy locality was noted for the badness of its grapes, 
and consequently of its wine. 
68 Hardouin thinks that this is the "Marze mina" of the Venetians : 
whence, perhaps, its ancient name. 
69 " Testis.'* See B. xxxv. c. 46. 
'^^ From Murgentum, in Sicily. See B. iii. c. 14. 
71 From Pompeii, afterwards destroyed. See B. iii c. 9. 
Hardouin, as Fee thinks, without good reason, identifies this with 
the *'Arelaca" of Columella. 
"73 Georgics, ii. 99. 
This seems to be the meaning of " ultro solum Isetius facit.*' These 
two lines have been introduced by Sillig, from one of the MSS., for the 
first time. 
