Note 1115 — BOOK XIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT TREES.

There is no doubt that the whole of this passage is in a most corrupt state, and we can only guess at its meaning. Sillig suggests a new reading, which, unsupported as it is by any of the MSS., can only be regarded as fanciful, and perhaps as a very slight improvement on the attempts to obtain a solution of the difficulty. Pliny’s main object seems to be to contrast the vines that entwine round poles and rise perpendicularly with those that creep horizontally.