CORRESPONDENCE 



i/9 



Its association with the milk and honey 

 of the good old Bible days, and its 

 place in history as the symbol of plenty 

 and comfortable living, seem always ir- 

 resistibly conveyed to the senses by the 

 rich and lncions bouquet that pervades 

 all regions of the clustering vine. 



1 want to add a bit of history to your 

 article. In Fiske's "Discovery of Amer- 

 ica" there are some interesting pas- 

 sages about grapes. These have a par- 

 ticular value in view of what you have 

 said about the origin of the Concord 

 grape. He tells us that probably in the 

 summer or early autumn of the year 

 iooo. the famous Northman Leif, the 

 son of Eric the Red, with a crew of 

 thirty-five men, brought his ship to a 

 harbor which was reached after cruis- 

 ing along the shores of a strange coast. 

 Here they went ashore and one of the 

 crew, a south country man named Tyr- 

 ker. came in from a ramble in the neigh- 

 borhood making grimaces and talking 

 to himself in a language (probably Ger- 

 man ) unknown to his comrades. They 

 finally learned that his excitement was 

 caused by the discovery of vines load- 

 ed with grapes, and as a native of a 

 vine country he was quite overwhelm- 

 ed. Leif accordingly called this coun- 

 trv Vinland. Now the sequel. Fiske 

 with his usual painstaking care weighs 

 all the pros and cons concerning the 

 location of this Vinland and finally 

 reaches the following conclusion — I 

 quote : 



"On the whole we may say with some 

 confidence that the place described by 

 our chroniclers as Vinland was situated 

 somewhere between Point Judith and 

 Cape Breton ; possibly we may narrow 

 our limits and say that it was some- 

 where between Cape Cod and Cape 

 Ann." 



In other words, within the borders 

 of what is now the State of Massachu- 

 setts. 



S. C. Hunter. 



The playful little maples are in their gala 

 dress, 



Their leaves, they dance in every breeze 

 that blows; 



The conifers behind them are robed in liv- 

 ing green, 



Xor will they change till hoar with Win- 

 ter snows. 



— Emma Peirce. 



Curious Natural Grafting. 



Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 

 To the Editor : 



I enclose a photograph of a tree that 

 I met with in one of my strolls. It is 

 a curious example of a "wind graft" of 



TWO ELMS FIRMLY GRAFTED. 



two elms. The elbow r from the larger 

 elm is firmly grafted to the neighbor- 

 ing tree, the parent meamvhile having 

 been killed by lightning. 



Jos. Boucher. 



You will find something far greater 

 in the woods than you will find in 

 books. Stones and trees will teach you 

 that which you will never learn from 

 masters. — St: Bernard. 



A woman brushed a dewdrop from a 

 rose. "A diamond shall replace it,' 

 said the woman. "It cannot," sobbed 

 the parched flower. — E. Scott O'Con- 

 nor in "Tracings." 



