]38 Aiiwrican Horticultural Society. 



COLOR OF t; KATES. 



IJY D. S. .MARVIN, OF NEW YORK. 



In growing seedling grapes we are just as apt to get a so-called white 

 grape from a black one, or vice versa, as one of the color of the p.irent vine. 

 From the thousands of seedlings I have grown and studied, I do not think 

 that hybridizing has any ellect in determining the color of a new seedling. 

 The coloring matters of wine have been well studied by Thresicunj and 

 Dupre in their exhaustive treatise upon wine, and, incident^dly, the coloring 

 matter of the skins is more or less studied. On page 204 it is said " the juice 

 of most grapes is perfectly free from tannin; the skins and stalks (stems), 

 however, contain a considerable quantity of a substance which, though not 

 ordinary tannin, closely resembles it in properties." On page 255 it is said 

 "color in wine is produced by the o.xydizing etiect of the air upon matters 

 contained in grapes — the so-called extractine, or bodies not yet known, and 

 the tannic acid. ' 



It will be seen that color is the efiect of sunlight acting upon the tannic 

 acid of the skins and those unknown bodies spoken of that play so important 

 a part in the colors of wine. This leaves the causes of the colors of the fruit 

 sDmewhat unstudied. Back of all this, it seems to me, there are cauf^es out- 

 side of any chemical action and reaction that have led up to and originated 

 the colors of the fruit. I refer to the influences of birds and, occasionally, 

 animals; the interchanges of action and reaction they have produced upon 

 the slow and gradual development of the fruit. 



It is as yet unknown from what plant the grape originated, but from a 

 careful study and personal consideration of the varied tendencies of the 

 plant, the seedlmgs gradually diverging and, linally, breaking in such a num- 

 ber of species far away in ihe }):ist, and each of these species again into such 

 a multitude of varieties, the varieties sprouting into so many new tints and 

 colors of skin and i)ulp and seeds, we must, therefore, conclude that these 

 causes have exerted such an important influence upon some one or more of 

 the vital economics, that the color of the fruit had come to be of very great 

 importance to the development, growth and welfare of the plants themselves. 

 The origin of the vine i)robably dates back to the earlier portions of the ter- 

 tiary period, the fruit at lirst small and inconspicuous. Some of the plants 

 finally sj)routing a little, from lavorable environment or other causes, devel- 

 oped higher-colored berries. The birds being attracted, fed upon the ber- 

 ries, and scattered the seeds ujion still better land and in a more favorable 

 climate, where they germinated and produced still higher-colored and more 

 attractive fruit. Thus, from clime to clime and age to age, continuing, until 

 finally primitive man, coming to the aid of the birds, recognizing the attract- 

 iveness and food value of the fruit, began its selection, and afterwards, per- 

 haps, its cultivation, always .selecting the best and largest fruit, and, like the 

 birds, the highest-colored and most attractive varieties, for his own diatetic 



