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