Chap. 5.] 
CTJLTUIIB or THE VINE. 
233 
lacra : it is of stunted growth, and has branches a cubit in 
length ; the grape is black, about the size of a bean, with a 
berry that is soft, and remarkably small : the clusters hang in 
a slanting direction, and are remarkably sweet ; the leaves are 
small and round, without any division.^^ "Within the last 
seven years there has been introduced at Alba Helvia,^^ in the 
province of Gallia JSTarbonensis, a vine which blossoms but a 
single day, and is consequently proof against all accidents : 
the name^ given to it is ISTarbonica," and it is now planted 
throughout the whole of that province. 
CHAP. 5. (4.) EEMARKABLE PACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
CULTUEE OF THE VINE. 
The elder Cato, who was rendered more particularly illus- 
trious by his triumph and the censorship, and even more so 
by his literary fame, and the precepts which he has given to 
the Eoman people upon every subject of utility, and the 
proper methods of cultivation in particular ; a man who, by 
the universal confession, was the first husbandman of his age 
and without a rival — has mentioned a few varieties only of 
the vine, the very names of some of which are by this utterly 
forgotten.^^ His statement on this subject deserves our 
separate consideration, and requires to be quoted at length, in 
order that we may make ourselves acquainted with the differ- 
ent varieties of this tree that were held in the highest esteem 
in the year of the City of Eome 600, about the time of the 
capture of Carthage and Corinth, the period of his death : it 
will show too, what great advances civilization has made in 
the last two hundred and thirty years. The following are the 
remarks which he has made on the subject of the vine and the 
grape. 
As the leaves of the vine are universally divided, it has been considered 
hy many of the commentators that this is not in reality a vine, but the 
Arbutus uva ursi of Linnaeus. The fruit, however, of that ericaceous 
plant is remarkably acrid, and not sweet, as Pliny states. Fee rejects this 
solution. 
21 Aubenas, in the Yivarais, according to Hardouin ; Alps, according to 
Brotier. We must reject this assertion as fabulous. 
22 In B.C. 194, for his successes in Spain. 
23 Mode of culture, locality, climate, and other extraneous circumstances, 
work, no doubt, an entire change in the nature of the vine. 
