Chap. 4.] 
YAEIETIES OF THE YINE. 
231 
Gallic vine is a great favourite, while beyond the Alps that of 
Picenum^^ is preferred. Virgil has made mention of the 
Thasian vine, the Mareotis, the lagea, and several other foreign 
varieties, which are not to be found in Italy. 
There are some vines, again, that are remarkable, not for 
their wine, but for their grapes, such, for instance, as the am- 
brosia, one of the duracinus "^^ kind, a grape which requires 
no potting, but will keep perfectly well if left on the vine, so 
remarkable is the strength with which it is endowed for with- 
standing the effects of cold, heat, and stormy weather. The 
orthampelos,"^' too, is a vine that requires neither tree nor 
stay, as it is well able to sustain its own weight. This, how- 
ever, is not the case with the dactylis,"^^ the stem of which 
is no thicker than the finger. The coiumbina"^^ is one of 
those with the finest clusters, and still more so is the purple 
bimammia it does not bear in clusters,^ but only secondary 
bunches. There is the tripedanea,^ too, a name which it owes 
to the length of its clusters, and the scirpula,^ with its shrivelled 
berry ; the Ehaetica,^ too, so called in the Maritime Alps, though 
very different from the grape of that name which is so highly 
esteemed, and of which we have previously spoken ; for in 
this variety the clusters are small, the grapes lie closely packed, 
the name, probably. Fee suggests that it may have originated in the not 
uncommon practice of letting the bunches hang after they were ripe, and 
then twisting them, which was thought to increase the juice. 
93 In the modern Marches of Ancona. 
9* Georgics, ii. 91, et seq. 
Sunt Thasise vites, sunt et Mareotides albaB : 
***** 
Et passo Psithia utilior, tenuisque Lageos, 
Tentatura pedes olim, vincturaque linguam, 
Purpureae, Preciseque 
95 A muscatel, Fee thinks. 
^6 Or "hard-berried.'* Fee thinks that the maroquin, or Morocco 
grape, called the "pied de poule" (or fowl's foot), at Montpellier. may be 
the duracinus. 
97 Or "upright vine." In Anjou and Herault the vines are of similar 
character. 
98 The "finger-like" vine. 99 The "pigeon" vine. 
1 Though very fruitful, it does not bear in large clusters (racemi), but 
only in small bunches (uvae). 
2 The " three-foot" vine. 
3 Perhaps meaning the "rush" grape, from its shrivelled appearance. 
* See c. 3 of this Book. 
