No. 99 & 100. VITIS. 



121 



put in ihe pails when the cows are milked. The peculiar 

 color and taste of green cheese is produced by the Melt- 

 lotus or Sweet Luzerne, used in the same Avay. Cows 

 and cattle are very fond of the G. vemm and Melilotus. 



No. 99 & 100. VITIS. 



Names. Grape Vine- Fr. Vigne. 



Classify Nat. Order of Sarraenta 

 oecia L- . . ' 



Polygamia tri- 



Genus ViTis. Perfectly trioical. Calyx cuplike, 5 

 lobed before the flowers expand, entire afterwards. Co- 

 rolla of fire petals oblong obtuse hooded, adheringat the 

 summit Five lon^ stamina opposed to the petals. Pistil 

 on a glandular disk, a stigma subsessile, capitate entire. 

 Berry one celled. 2 to 5 seeds obcordate. Woody vines 

 with alternate petiolate and stipulate leaver; tendrils 



and thyrsoidal racemes of flowers and fruits^ opposite to 



the leaves. 



HISTORY. I propose to ^ive here a monography of 

 the North American Grape Vines. The subject \% new 

 and obscure. The botanical species are scarcely indi- 

 cated, and their numberless varieties have been over- 

 looked by our best writers. I have ascertained about 

 40 species and 100 varieties, but I must confess that it 

 is not always easy to say whether one or the other. I 

 was once inclined to consider all our Grapes (like our 

 btrawberries) as varieties of a single species, the Vitis 



if^ 



labru 



seUj V. laciniosa. V. anrea^ V. farinosa, K atrcL, V. 

 coriathiaca^ S^c. to distinguish the wild, cut-leaved, 

 mealv, black, and Currant Vines of Europe. While 

 all tRese hav^ been united to K vinifera. Our native 

 Grapes had been made into 8 or 10 species, which dif- 

 fer less than those, and can hardly be distinguished from 

 them, in an exclusive point of view, except by their 

 more permanent polygamy. My attempt to classify our 

 Vines is therefore arduous, many species being described 

 by authors under the same name j but I hope will be 



I 



