Chap. 35.] 
CULTURE OF THE VIKE. 
515 
drils^^ have been cut away on every side fresli branches should 
be trained to run along the stages. In Italy the pruning is so 
managed that the shoots and tendrils of the vines are arranged 
so as to cover the branches of the tree, while the shoots of the 
vine in their turn are surrounded with clusters of grapes. In 
Gallia, on the other hand, the vine is trained to pass from tree 
to tree. On the ^milian Way, again, the vine is seen em- 
bracing the trunks of the Atinian elms that line the road, 
while at the same time it carefully avoids their foliage.^^ 
It is a mark of ignorance in some persons to' suspend the 
vine with a cord beneath the branches of the tree, to the great 
risk of stifling it ; for it ought to be merely kept up with a 
withe of osier, and not tightly laced. Indeed, in those places 
where the willow abounds, the withes that it affords are pre- 
fen^ed, on account of their superior suppleness, while the Sici- 
lians employ for the purpose a grass, which they call ampelo- 
desmos throughout the whole of Greece, rushes, cyperus, 
and sedge are similarly employed. When at any time the 
vine has been liberated from its bonds, it should be allowed to 
range uncontrolled for some days, and to spread abroad at 
pleasure, as well as to recline upon the ground which it has 
been looking down upon the whole year through. For in the 
same manner that beasts of burden when released from the 
yoke, and dogs when they have returned from the chase, love 
to roll themselves on the ground, just so does the vine delight 
to stretch its loins. The tree itself, too, seems to rejoice, and, 
thus relieved from the continuous weight which has burdened 
it, to have all the appearance of now enjoying a free respira- 
tion. Indeed, there is no object in all the economy of i^ature 
that does not desire certain alternations for the enjoyment of 
rest, witness the succession of night and day, for instance. It 
is for this reason that it is forbidden to prune the vine directly 
the vintage is over, and while it is still exhausted by the 
process of reproduction. 
Directly the vine has been pruned, it ought to be fastened 
again to the tree, but in another place ; for there is no doubt 
that it feels very acutely the indentations that are made in it 
62 Capreolis. 63 being too dense and shady. 
6^ From the Greek, meaning the vine-band." It was, probably, a 
kind of rush. 
Fee thinks that he may mean the Festuca fluitans more particularly, 
by the name ulva. 
