186 VITACEAE 



VITIS LABRUSCA Linnaeus 

 Fox Grape 



The Fox Grape, fig. 46, is a long vine with stems that have 

 more of a tendency to trail than to twine. The branchlets and 

 petioles are covered with dense, rusty or whitish hair and fre- 

 quently with upright, stalked glands. The leaves, about as long 

 as wide, generally are 2 to 6 inches wide and usually have 2 

 short lateral lobes, which may be either blunt or acute, sepa- 

 rated from the blade by broad, rounded sinuses. The blade is 

 either deeply and narrowly or broadly V-shaped at the base, 

 acute or acuminate at the apex, and irregularly toothed with 

 relatively shallow, mucronate teeth. The upper leaf surface 

 is woolly when the leaf unfolds. but becomes smooth or nearly 

 so at maturity and is then dull and dark green. The under 

 surface is covered until maturity with a heavy, rusty or whitish 

 tomentum, but at maturity the veins may become smooth. The 

 petioles are usually about two-thirds as long as the leaf blade. 



The inflorescence arises from the stem opposite a leaf and 

 stands on a peduncle l/^ to 2 inches long. The flowers bloom 

 about the middle of June, and the berries, which mature from 

 late August into September, are dark purple to wine red, 

 spherical, and about ^4 i"ch in diameter, and covered with 

 little or no bloom. Each contains 2 to 4 seeds, which are 

 notched at the large end. 



Distribution. — The Fox Grape, which prefers woods along 

 streams and bodies of water, ranges from New England to 

 Illinois and south to Georgia. In Illinois it is, however, so 

 rare that there is only one reliable report of its occurrence in 

 the state. This report is for Cass County. 



The Fox Grape is the wild species from which a considerable 

 number of the American grapes now in cultivation, such as the 

 Concord and Catawba, were derived. 



VITIS AESTIVALIS Michaux 



Summer Grape 



The Summer Grape, fig. 46, is a large, high-climbing vine 

 with large, lobed leaves and small, tough-skinned, black berries. 

 Its branchlets, more or less woolly when young, soon become 

 smooth or nearly so, except the first few internodes, which 



