of that month, and having paffed from place to place in the Saronic gulf, for four or five days, he tells us, p. 211, "We landed and went to the

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monaftery, which is at fome diftance from "the fea, the fituation high and romantic, near a deep torrent-bed. It was furrounded by green vineyards; thickets of myrtle; orange and lemon-trees in bloffom; the "arbutus with fruit large but unripe; the "oleander or picro-daphne, and the olive "laden with flowers."

a

According to this laft account, the grapes near Marathon might be of a confiderable fize, when the olive-trees in the other place were but in bloffom. But (if there is no mistake in one of these accounts) as the olive does not continue long in the bloffom, as will appear prefently, the difference, in point of time, as to the blooming of the olive in thefe two places, must have proceeded from the difference of foil, or expofition, or height, or fome, or all, of thefe caufes conjoined '; and probably, in confequence, the vine in this lofty fituation was proportionably as backward.

It is certain that Miller, the great Chelfca gardener, fuppofes that with us, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, red, white, and double oleanders, and olives, may be found in flower in the month of July, in our greenhouses and stoves, confequently are contempo

Chandler himself obferves the fituation of the last place was high.

raries ;

raries; but the vine bloffoms with us before

July in the

open

air'.

As to the other particulars: it is queftioned, whether grapes, when half-grown,

very much are wont to fall from the vines, fo as to defeat the hopes of a good vintage. I do not remember to have heard of any fuch complaint. The hurt done to the olive-tree is, according to a fucceeding citation from Dr. Chandler, when they are in bloffom; and the Doctor tells us, not indeed as from his own obfervation, but from Paufanius, the hurt was done in as early a state to the vine, if not earlier, for that ancient author fpeaks of their being injured in the bud; and that it was fuppofed to be a fouth-west wind that withered them in that early period; whereas it was, according to. Chandler, a north or north-eaft wind, that was wont to defeat their hopes from the olivetrees in Greece: to which he adds, that the danger, with regard to the flowers of thofe trees, is over in a fortnight.

The paffage is too curious not to be cited at length here. It is as follows: "The "olive-groves are now, as anciently, a principal fource of the riches of Athens. "The mills for preffing and grinding the "olives are in the town. The oil is depofited "in large earthen jars, funk in the ground, "in the areas before the houfes. The crops "had failed five years fucceffively when we

See his Gardener's Kalendar. VOL. IV.

I

2 P. 219.
"arrived.

"arrived. The caufe affigned was, a norther◄ ly wind called Greco-Tramontane, which "deftroyed, the flower. The fruit is fet in "about a fortnight, when the apprehenfion "from this unpropitious quarter ceases. The "bloom in the following year was unhurt, "and we had the pleasure of leaving the "Athenians happy in the profpect of a plen"tiful harvest '.'

Here, we are told, it is a northerly wind that is fuppofed to caufe the olive-bloffom to fail. Elsewhere the Cacias, or the north-east wind, according to the difpofition of the tower of Andronicus Cyrrheftes at Athens, which is

an octagon, decorated with sculpture, re"presenting the winds, eight in number.. "A young Turk," fays Chandler," explain"ed to me two of the emblems; that of the figure of Cæcias, as fignifying he made the "olives fall; of Sciron, that he dried up the "rivers "."

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2

If then the olive-trees are injured by a N. E. wind, and the vines by a S. W, they are not hurt by the fame kind of wind: they are oppofite winds that are fuppofed to produce thefe different effects'.

• P. 126.

2 P. 103.

Accordingly, Dr. Chandler, who expreffeth fuch an obliging concern for the Athenians, on account of the failure of their olive-crops five years together, fays not one word of any lofs they fuftained of their grapes; and no wonder, if they are contrary winds that produce these deftructive effects on those two important trees of the Eaft.

If they are oppofite winds that produce these deftructive effects on the vine and the olive, they are not both to be attributed to the Sumyel, or deadly eaft wind. It should even feem neither of these two sorts of ruinous winds are to be supposed to have the qualities of the Sumyel, as the very ingenious author, on whom I am now animadverting, fuppofes. The Sumyel is not known, I think, in Greece. What effect is produced by the Sumyel on half-grown grapes and olive-blooms, in the countries where it blows, if distinctly noticed there, hath not, fo far as I know, been transmitted to us in Europe but it is evident, from these citations from Dr. Chandler, that winds that are not deadly, as the Sumyel is, may be very ruinous to vines and olive-trees; and that these effects fhould not be attributed to this kind of south-east wind exclusively, if at all.

It would be an agreeable acquifition to the learned world, if obfervations made in Judæa itself, or rather, in this cafe, in the land of Uz, were communicated to it, relating to the natural caufes which occafion, from time to time, a disappointment of their hopes from their vineyards and olive-plantations; and the effects of a violently fultry south-east wind on their most useful, or remarkable vegetables.

After all, I very much question, whether the words of Eliphaz, in this paffage of the book of Job, refer to any blafting of the vine by natural caufes; they seem rather to express the violently taking away the un

ripe grapes by the wild Arabs, of which I have given an account in a preceding volume'. It is certain the word tranflated here unripe grape, is used to exprefs thofe grapes that were fo far advanced in growth as to be eaten, though not properly ripened, as appears from Jer. xxxi. 29, and Ezek. xviii. 2; and the verb tranflated here shake off, fignifies removing by violence, confequently cannot be meant of any thing done in the natural course of things, but by an human hand; and if so, may as well be applied to the depredations of the Arabs, as the impetuofity or deleterious quality of any wind, the energy of poetry making use of a verb active inftead of it's paffive.

It may not be amifs, before I close, just to take notice, that the vulgar Latin translation was fo little apprehensive that grapes, when grown to any confiderable fize, were wont to drop, that it's authors, or correctors, have rendered the words after this manner, "Læde

tur quafi vinea in primo flore botrus ejus," that is," His clufter fhall be injured as a "vine when it firft comes into flower;" in

Obf. vol. I, ch. 2, obf. 6.-If. 18. 5, is to be underftood after the fame manner, which the Bishop of London has thus tranflated, after a much more advantageous manner than our common verfion,

"Surely before the vintage, when the bud is perfect,
"And the bloffom is become a fwelling grape;

"He shall cut off the fhoots with pruning hooks,

"And the branches he shall take away, he shall cut down.”

timating,