138 American Horticultural Society. 



and Asia and Africa, by long hybridization and cultivation. Placed 

 here only for comparison and to indicate its relationship. This ap- 

 pears to occupy about the same position in distribution in the Old 

 World as do the Riparian tribes in the New, and seem to have drifted 

 eastward from the center of origin, us did the Riparia westward and 

 northward. 

 7. RoTUNDiFOLiA ( Vulpina, improperly Scuppernong or Muscadine). 



From Grayson county, Texas, eastward in bottom wooded lands to South- 

 ern Maryland, and southward in all the Southern States to the Gulf; roots 

 very hard and penetrating; wood hard, slender; grows with greatest diffi- 

 culty from cuttings; warty, with most obscure grooves in young bark of 

 any species; no proper pith, and, consequently, no diaphragm; leaves 

 round or heart-shaped, with coarse, regular, acute teeth, smooth and shin- 

 ing on both sides, firm and tough ; tendrils never forked, as is the case in 

 all others ; medium ; fruit very large with a rough, tough skin, always of an 

 agreeable taste, making good wine; seeds very large, somewhat resembling 

 small coffee grains, small wrinkles radiating from the chalaza toward the 

 margins, but not around them ; clusters very small, having from three to 

 eight berries, which drop easily as soon as ripe ; seems to have no diseases 

 and never fails to make a crop in its native home; leaves out and blooms 

 the latest of all, but ripens from August to October. By distribution it 

 would come before Californica and Caribbea in the United States, but by 

 affinity and development it is most distinct from all other species and has 

 never been found hybridized in the wild state with any other. 



With this outline and classification before us we can the more readily and 

 intelhgently enter into some viticultural observations, which I trust may lead 

 to more extensive and accurate exj^eriments in the endeavors to develop the 

 valuable qualities so numerous and superior in several of our native grapes. 



To further illustrate natural distribution, whose laws we must observe to be 

 successful, I shall only cite the single State of Texas, which stands foremost 

 of all in the number and value of species, illustrating most admirably the 

 rules of adaptation. In her northwestern " Panhandle " are Riparia, proper, 

 though not abundant, and Woolly Riparia (Nuevo Mexicana); in her central 

 belt of intermingled prairie and timber, hills and plains, silicious and cal- 

 careous soils, of the cretacious formations, are scatteringly. Smooth Riparia, 

 Woolly Riparia, Rupestris, Monticola, Cinerea, Candicans, Cordifolia and 

 ^stivalis; extending on to the moist, sandy, timbered regions, along streams 

 and timber belts, in her black prairie region, are Candicans abundantly in 

 wooded lime soils, Cordifolia and Cinerea in bottoms, iEstivalis in sandy 

 post-oak lands; in the eastern sandy, densely timbered regions, continue 

 scatteringly Cordifolia abundantly, ^stivalis, Cinerea and often Rotundifo- 

 lia, the latter becoming very aboundant lower down, while Cordifolia and 

 ^stivalis are seldom found, and Cinerea is still common to the everglades 

 bordering the Gulf. 



