1 -Hi 
vine migrated from the East to the West. Some writers 
affirm it is truly wild in Greece, a circumstance which 
others doubt; but if not indigenous, from a very remote 
period it has been completely naturalised both there and 
in other parts of southern Europe, where its culture has 
long formed a chief branch of rural economy. 
Virgil, who seems almost as good a naturalist as a 
poet, discourses very learnedly on the cultivation both 
of the vine and olive, in his second Georgic. He in¬ 
forms us how, and when, and where to plant these va¬ 
luable trees, in strains so sweet that the rough labours 
of husbandry appear no longer a part of the original 
curse. Speaking of the natural habitat of the vine, he 
says,— 
“ Nor every plant on every soil will grow : 
The sallow loves the wat’ry ground, and low ; 
The marshes alders. Nature seems t’ ordain 
The rocky cl iff for the wild ash’s reign ; 
The baleful yew to northern blasts assigns, 
To shores the myrtles, and to mounts the vines.” 
But when under culture, he allows the situation to be 
a matter of choice, recommending only a corresponding 
difference in the mode of planting : — 
