STATURE OF THE VINE. 
173 
yet thefe are no impeachment of the truth of the obfervation, 
fince it is no uncommon thing for men to fee trees running 
into apparent decay, which their own hands have raifed and 
planted : It confequently is a circumftance mofl: remarkable, 
relative to the Vine, that it is of fuch a lading duration as to 
furvive many ages. 
Mr. Miller, in his Gardener’s Dictionary, tells us that the 
vineyards in fome parts of Italy will hold good above 300 
years, accounting thofe of 100 years as young Vines. 
Aftonilhing as the above account, refpeCting the age of the 
Vine, may appear at firft fight, the wonder will, in a great 
meafure, ceafe, when we compare it with the following paffage 
taken from Mr. Evelyn’s Silva, in which that of its bulk will 
not feem lefs furprizing. 
** The particulars were too long to recount of the old Fla^ 
tanusy fet by Aga nemnon^ mentioned by Theophrajiusy the 
** Herculean Oaks, the Laurel near Hippocrene, the Vatican 
IleXy and the Vine which was grown to that bulk and woodi- 
“ nefs, as to make a ftatue of Jupiter, and columns in Jiinds 
** temple ; At prefent it is found that the great doors of the 
“ cathedral at Ravenna, are made of fuch Vine-tree planks, 
** fome of which are twelve feet long and fifteen inches broad, 
the whole foil of that country producing Vines of a prodi- 
** gious growth. 
“ Such 
