53. EIS: _sc. sarmentis_, those which have not been pruned away by the knife. -- EXSISTIT: 'springs up'. _Exsistere_ in good Latin never has the meaning of our 'exist', _i.e._ '_to be in_ existence', but always means '_to come into_ existence'. -- ARTICULOS: 'joints'; cf. 51 _culmo geniculato_. The word _tamquam_ softens the metaphor in _articuli_, which would properly be used only of the joints in the limbs of animals. -- GEMMA: Cicero took the meaning 'gem' or 'jewel' to be the primary sense of _gemma_ and considered that the application to a bud was metaphorical. See the well-known passages, Orat. 81 and De Or. 3, 155. -- VESTITA PAMPINIS: 'arrayed in the young foliage'. -- FRUCTU ... ASPECTU: ablatives of respect, like _gustatu_ above. -- CAPITUM IUGATIO: 'the linking together of their tops'; _i.e._ the uniting of the tops of the stakes by cross-stakes. So the editors; but Conington on Verg. Georg. 2, 355 seems to take _capita_ of the top-foliage of the vines, an interpetation which is quite possible. Those editors are certainly wrong who remove the comma after _iugatio_ and place it after _religatio_, as though _et_ were omitted between the two words. In enumerations of more than two things Cic. either omits the copula altogether or inserts it before each word after the first; but in enumerating two things _et_ cannot be omitted, except where there are several _sets_ or _pairs_ of things. Cf. n. on 13. -- RELIGATIO: _i.e._ the tying down of shoots so as to cause them to take root in the earth. _Religatio_ seems to occur only here. P. 23. -- ALIORUM IMMISSIO: 'the granting of free scope to others'. _Immissio_ scarcely occurs elsewhere in good Latin. The metaphor is from letting loose the reins in driving; cf. Verg. Georg. 2, 364; Plin. N.H. 16, 141 _cupressus immittitur in perticas asseresque amputatione ramorum_; Varro, R.R. 1, 31, 1 _vitis immittitur ad uvas pariendas_. Some, referring to Columella de Arbor, c. 7, take the word to mean the setting in the earth of a shoot in order that it may take root before being separated from the parent stem. The context, however, is against this interpretation. -- IRRIGATIONES etc.: the plurals denote more prominently than singulars would the repetition of the actions expressed by these words. -- REPASTINATIONES: 'repeated hoeings'. The _pastinum_ was a kind of pitchfork, used for turning over the ground round about the vines, particularly when the young plants were being put in. -- MULTO TERRA FECUNDIOR: see n. on 3 _parum ... auctoritatis_.