STAVE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 81 



with almost certainty, adopt five native grapes as the parents of our already very large 

 variety of tame grapes, and which count at present by the hundreds. 



/•'</■ Grape, Fitis Labrusca.) — The grand parent f>r our wine-culture, of such rich 

 and important offspring, as the Catawba, Concord, Diana, Hartford Prolific, the worth- 

 less Isabella, besides many other crosses, which originated by hybridizing with European 

 grapes, as tor instance all the Roger Hybrids manifest a foreign ii ascent whose attributes 

 t liey have more or less retained. 



its habitations are the mountains in the eastern and northern States as far down as 

 Pennsylvania, and may have been with its large berries — sometimes % of an inch in 

 diameter, although not sweet nor palatable— a very welcome fruit to the hunter in the 

 wilderness. 



Growth, thrifty; vine, chestnut color, long jointed; cane in its growth, white and 

 wooly, and on top, rosy; leaf, larg'', mostly without incisions, ending in three large 

 points; edge, crooked and without teeth; upper part, apple green and shining ; lower 

 part, wooly and leather color ; bunch, small, more round than long, with 10 — 12 berries 

 sometimes less; berries, round, very large, sometimes % of an inch in diameter, of the 

 most beautiful appearance, dark blue, covered with light blue bloom, thick skinned, with 

 i strong, astringent flavor, and little sweetness. Not to be recommended for the table, 

 nor for culture. 



The F<>x grape requires, in order to thrive, a treatment suiting its wild nature, bears 

 well, produees three or four of its small grapes, on one fruit cane. All its descendants 

 can with "certainty be multiplied through cuttings; they are characterized by their 

 woolly appearance ; beautiful rose-colored foliage at its end points and the tops of the 

 young canes, and also by its long joints. They are all very productive. Berries are 

 mostly round, thick skinned, more fleshy than juicy, inherit more or less the Fox llavor, 

 and are, with few exceptions, less subject to the destructive sicknesses. 



I. Summer <!r<ij>fi, < Vffis cestivalia). — The vine grows to a gigantic height, stem or trunk 

 like a tree, over a foot in diameter, but few vines bear fruit. Cane, light brown, thin, 

 joints long. Leaf deep cut like teeth, when young, lower side but little woolly; when 

 older, smooth on both sides, upper side shining, lower side pale green. Grape compact, 

 middle size. Berries small, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, clustering, dark blue 

 with light bloom, thick skinned, without juice, with large kernels, and therefore dan- 

 gcrous, when eaten in large quantities. But a few grapes will produce a pressure in the 

 stomach. I know of two cases, when boys, who had enjoyed the luxury to freely, had 

 need of medical aid. Ripens in October, is of inferior taste. Wc are to this summer grape 

 indebted, through crossing and nature for some very choice offsprings as for instance, 

 Norton's Virginia, Oynthiana, Clinton, and different Ozarks. 



:;. Winter or Froti Grape, (Vitus cordifolia). — Stock in growth and cane resembling the 

 former very much. The leaf medium si/.e, shining green, mostly sharp cut, thin, smooth 

 on both Bides. Grape long, very loose. Berry small, about a quarter of an inch in diam- 

 eter, nearly black with little bloom, ripens late, is hardly eatable before the frost, but then 

 mostly dry, and of very inferior taste. Between the named No. 1, 9, and 8 are many 

 varieties, which acknowledge in their appearance the one or the other as their parent, 

 but yet forbid strict division. In form, color, and smoothness of the leaf on both sides, 

 Taylor and Rutllf are related to No. 3, although their early ripening protest against it. 



4. Muscadine or Southern Fox Grape, ( Vitis cidpina). —Stands entirely isolated, but is a 



