Another means of augmenting the fertility of the vine is noticed by Lord Bacon, whose diligent study of antiquity was at least as remarkable as his superior intellect. “It is strange, which is observed by some of the ancients, that dust helpeth the fruitfulness of trees and of vines by name; insomuch as they cast dust upon them of purpose. It should seem that powdring when a shower cometh maketh a kind of soiling to the tree, being earth and water finely laid on. And they note that countries where the fields and waies are dusty bear the best vines.” Sylva Sylvarum, 666. Footnote 1557: Geop. iv. 1. 16. ----- These Anadendrades,[1558] which were supposed to produce the best and most lasting wines, probably, as at present, ripened their produce much later than the other sorts of vines on account of the trees by which they were shaded. In modern Crete,[1559] where, however, they are never pruned, their grapes seldom ripen before November, and sometimes they furnish the bazaar of Khania with fresh supplies till Christmas. The same is the case also in Egypt. ----- Footnote 1558: These vines were likewise called ἁμαμάξυες. Aristoph. Vesp. 325, et Schol. The rustics engaged in pruning them, feeling themselves secure in their lofty station, used to pour their rough raillery and invectives on the passers-by. Horace, Satir. i. 7. 29, seq. ----- Occasionally, too, more especially in Cypros, the Anadendrades grew to an enormous size. At Populonium, in Etruria, there was a statue of Jupiter carved from a single vine; the pillars of the temple of Hera, at Metapontum, consisted of so many vines; and the whole staircase leading to the roof of the fane of Artemis, at Ephesos, was constructed with the timber of a single vine from Cypros. To render these things credible, we are informed, that, at Arambys, in Africa,[1560] there was a vine twelve feet in circumference, and modern travellers have found them of equal dimensions in other parts of the world.[1561] In France, for example, the celebrated Anne, Duc de Montmorenci, had a table made with a single slab of vinewood, which, two hundred years afterwards, Brotier[1562] saw preserved at the town of Ecouen. ----- Footnote 1559: On the vines of this island cf. Meurs. Cret. c. 9. p. 103. Footnote 1560: Bochart. Geog. Sac. Pars Alt. l. i. c. 37. p. 712. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. v. i. Footnote 1561: Tozzeli, Viaggi. t. iv. p. 208. Footnote 1562: Not. ad Plin. xiv. i. 1. -----