232 
pliny's natfeal histoet. 
[Book XIY. 
and it produces but a poor wine. It has, however, the thin- 
nest skin of all the grapes, and a single stone,^ of very dimi- 
nutive size, which is known as the Chian one or two of 
the grapes on the cluster are remarkably large. There is also 
the black Aminean, to which the name of Syriaca is given : 
the Spanish vine, too, the vt3ry best of all those of inferior 
quality. 
The grapes that are known as escarise,'' are grown on trel- 
lises. Of the duracinus^ kind, there are those known as the 
white and the black varieties ; the bumastus, too, is similarly 
distinguished in colour. Among the vines too, that have 
not as yet been mentioned, there are the ^gian and the 
Ehodian^ kinds, as also the uncialis, so called, it would seem, 
from its grape being an ounce in weight. There is the picina^^ 
too, the blackest grape known, and the stephanitis,^^ the 
clusters of which I^ature, in a sportive mood, has arranged in 
the form of a garland, the leaves being interspersed among 
the grapes; there are the grapes, too, known as the ^^forenses,"^* 
and which quickly come to maturity, recommend themselves 
to the buyer by their good looks, and are easily carried from 
place to place. 
On the other hand, those known as the cinerea" are 
condemned by their very looks, and so are the rabuscula and 
the asinusca ; the produce of the alopecis,^^ which resembles 
in colour a fox's tail, is held in less disesteem. The Alexan- 
drina is the name of a vine that grows in the vicinity of Pha- 
5 The ordinary number of pips or stones is five. It is seldom that we 
find but one. Yirgil mentions this grape, Georg. ii. 95. 
^ " Chium." This reading is doubtful. Fee says that between Narni 
and Terni, eight leagues from Spoleto, a small grape is found, without 
stones. It is called "uya passa," or "passerina." So, too, the Sultana 
raisin of commerce. 
7 Grown for the table.'* ^ Or "hard-berry." 
5 Mentioned by Virgil, Georg. ii. 101. Or pitch-grape. 
^1 Perhaps the "noirant," or "teinturier" of the French. 
^2 Or "garland-clustered" yine. 
13 Fee says that this is sometimes accidentally the case, but is not the 
characteristic of any variety now known, 
u Or "market-grapes.'* 
15 The " ash-coloured." i^ The " russet-coloured." 
1'' Prohahly so called from its grey colour, like that of the ass. 
18 Or " fox " vine. This variety is unknown. 
1^ So called from Alexandria, in Troas, not in Egypt. Phalacra was 
in the vicinity of Mount Ida. 
