Native Grapes of the United States. 135 



niarkable new grape, Ulster Prolific, much larger and finer than Dela- 

 ware. This form insensibly runs into the 



'(b) South-eastern, or Norton's Va. Forms. 



Found southward from the Northern form, and east of the Missis- 

 sippi river. Leaves more leathery, with dense brown pubescence 

 along the veins, and occasionally spreading therefrom upon the under 

 surface of the leaf, especially in Florida samples, where also the young 

 twigs are covered with this rufous pubescence; fruit usually quite 

 small, not much larger than Cordi folia, and very astringent, in me- 

 dium to long and slender clusters, but occasionally quite fine in size 

 and quality. This variableness, doubtless, has come by the interming- 

 ling, from time to time, with other species, especially with Labrusca, 

 and occasionally with Cordifolia and Cinerea. When with the latter, 

 as in Warren, Herbemont, LeNoir, Louisiana, etc., the result is mar- 

 velous. 



{c) Southwestern Form, Post Oak, or Lincecumii,m Texas; ^Estivalis Jae- 

 ger, in Missouri. 

 From Missouri river through Western Missouri, Arkansas, Indian Ter- 

 ritory, Northern and Eastern Texas, and Northeastern Louisiana. 

 Leaves largest of any species, often beautifully, three, five and rarely 

 seven-lobed, having a peculiarly bluish appearance beneath, with veins 

 bearing a light brown pubescence. The fine prickles and prunose 

 bloom on young wood quite characteristic, more so than the forms (a) 

 and (b). Fruit small to very large, in color black .nnd shining, but 

 ■generally with heavy bloom, through shades of purple and red to 

 nearly white; quality from austere, acid and disagreeably astringent 

 pulpy and musky, up to pure, delicate, vinous, sweet, with sometimes 

 delightful nutty and vanilla-like flavors, offering a fascinating field for 

 the experimenter. Mr. Hermann Jaeger has done good service in his 

 region by finding such treasures as Racine, Neosho, 4, 13, 17, 32, 42, 

 43, 52, 55, and numerous others, and by producing hybrids already 

 with Rupestris, in 70 and 72, and Cinerea in his 50 and 56. Here in 

 Texas "Lucky" (probably the earliest yEstivalis known), "Purple," 

 ^' One Seed," " Late Prize," and a number of others have blessed my 

 own searchings in the woods. 



Often this form shows traces of Candicans and Labrusca in the fruit 

 and seeds, and some other points. In Texas, where the Candicans is 

 so abundant, it is easy to see how this blood got into ^stvalis; in 

 Southwestern Missouri it is not so easy to account for, and the La- 

 brusca blood, which seems still more frequently met with, is inexpli- 

 ■cable, unless it was brought among them from the East by pre-his- 

 toric man, or already intermingled, when drifted upon these shores 

 by the ocean currents, from the original home of the grape genus, 

 where these forms or their progenitors grew near each other. It is 



