Native Graj)es of the United States. 133 



(a) Cordifolia (Frost Grape; Sour, or Pungent Winter Grape). 

 Extends from Xew York west to Nebraska and Kansas, and covers the 

 regions southward from these States to the Gulf, chiefly in rich bot- 

 toms and along streams. Leaves heart-shaped, with coarse, blunt or 

 sharp teeth, smooth on both sides, leathery, veins below of a yellowish 

 green ; young wood smooth, dark gray or mottled dark and light gray, 

 tendrils long and very strong, climbs high and grows to great size, 

 sometimes a foot or more in diameter; diaphragm very thick; cut- 

 tings grow with great difhculty ; fruit small, shining, seedy, very sour 

 and pungent till ripened with frost, then sugary. A most remarka- 

 ble hybrid of this with Labrusca was found wild in Virginia by a Mr. 

 Ronk, some thirty years ago, having fruit and cluster about the size of 

 Ives's Seedling, of a pure rich vinous quality, pulpless, with a jelly-like, 

 melting meat. Vine very productive, vigorous. It was moved into 

 the man's yard, and has borne well for twenty -eight years, and is yet in 

 fine health and growth. Has never been disseminated. Was acci- 

 dentally brought to my notice while searching for specimens of native 

 grapes. Have carefully examined the leaf, vine, and ripe fruit, which 

 show it to be such a hybrid. Have also found some quite good varie- 

 ties of this species hybridized with the large yEstivalis in Texas. These 

 hybrids show the ameliorating eftectof hybridization. Scarcely could 

 any two species of less promise for intermingling than Cordifolia and 

 Labrusca, be named, yet Ronk's Blue of Virginia is certainly fine, 

 with neither pungency nor foxiness. 



(6) Palmata, or Rubra. 

 Along the banks of the Mississippi river, above St. Louis, Mo. Seem- 

 ingly a multiplied hybrid of Cordifolia with Riparia, with possibly a 

 trace of Cissus blood, indicated in the fruit, seed and leaf. Leaves 

 sharp-toothed with long taper-points, not always palmate, young wood 

 always red, hence Rubra, a better name than Palmata; grows fairly 

 well from cuttings ; diaphragm medium ; leaves and wood smooth, 

 branches slender. Rarest and most local of all our species. 



3. CiNEREAN Group. 



Leaves ovit, blooms and ripens after Cordifolia, young wood angled and 

 covered with an ash-colored cobwebby pubescence; cuttings root with 

 much difficulty. 



(a) Cinerea (Ashy or Sweet Winter Grape). 

 Covers nearly same region, and found in similar localities with Cordi- 

 folia, but more inclined to warm wooded bottoms, and does not ex- 

 tend so far north, west of the Alleghanies, but is reported to me by Mr. 

 A. J. Caywood, in S. E. New York, above where Cordifolia has been 

 reported ; more sensitive to severe changes than Cordifolia, when 

 taken into open culture. Having the same habits, distribution, size 

 and shape of cluster and fruit, and blooming and ripening late (later 



