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Random comments on Parthenocissus.
Some sources say the name "Parthenocissus" is connected to
"Virginia" (creeper); others say the name originated because
/Parthenocissus/ can produce seeds without pollination.
I regret to report that cedar waxwings don't eat Virginia
creeper berries, according to
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v113n02/p0414-p0430.pdf
I can't find any mention of them eating Boston ivy berries,
which means they probably don't.
Boston ivy is not native to Boston (it's from eastern
Asia) and is not an ivy.
More to the point, I completely agree with Matt that New
Wye is in Virginia (or West Virginia), at the latitude
of Palermo, not near Boston. I'd currently put it in
Highland County, Virginia, where both /Speyeria diana/
and /Speyeria atlantis/ occur (thanks to the wonderful
state range maps at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/)
and where there's a Botkin Hollow (thanks to Victor Fet).
(Neither the diana nor the atlantis has been recorded in
Rockingham County, where Harrisonburg is, and the diana
hasn't been recorded in Pendleton County, West Va.,
which was my other choice.)
I must say /Parthenocissus/ never reminded me of the
slang "grapevine", though they're related, but I did
enjoy Jansy's suggestion of a connection with the French
/jaseur/ and with the faculty gossip that Kinbote
decries.
Jerry Friedman
[PS sent by JF later:]
Sorry, I meant to add that Highland County is "Virginia's
Switzerland" (according to Wikipedia). I like the idea
of Nabokov in Switzerland's Switzerland setting his story
in Virginia's, and including scenes in Switzerland so
the two would mirror each other.
Jerry Friedman