PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 117 



Thus you see how nature has, in the long ages, thrown off this goodly 

 branch of variations from that great and curious order, Ampelidce, to 

 which belong the beautiful genera of Cissus, Ampelopsis, Parthenocissus, 

 and that wonderful tuberous-rooted, rich-fruited genus, Ampelocissus, 

 which has over forty species in Africa and many others in India, Australia, 

 and Mexico, all tropical; much as nature would say to man, " See what I, 

 groping in a chance like way, have molded out of the crude elements! Now 

 take hold with the intellect I have developed in you, and push forward the 

 variation and elevation to your every need and comfort, from the dead and 

 senseless to the live and infinitely enjoyable, remembering, too, that you 

 also inherit from me this evolutionary tendency. So do not fail to practice 

 upon yourselves the same beneficent principles that you know work such 

 vast benefit to inferior animals and plants." 



With this injunction, written all over and through your lovely country 

 among the lakes, hills, forests, and vines, let us see what this bountiful 

 nature has left you here to make your vine, and I then shall withdraw, that 

 some one else may show you your fig tree and how to better adapt it to 

 your climate and needs. 



THE NORTHERN TYPES. 



When we come to look over the list, behold! how poor you are in wild 

 grapes, in comparison with our great Texas! Yonder, on your warm, sunny 

 sand-hills, among the oaks, climb your VUis hicolor, with small, compact, 

 cylindrical clusters, reminding one of ears of pop-corn ; and down there in 

 the valley, along the creeks and rivers, and around the margins of your 

 charming little, and deep-blue mammoth, lakes are nestled, along your 

 fences and over low bushes, the small, early VUis vulpina. It is now cer- 

 tainly known that this is Linnseus' long lost Vitis vulpina, that has been 

 applied to our southern VUis roUindifoUa and others (more generally 

 known as VUis riparia), and they are all you have! But trial has proven 

 VUis Labrusca, in nearly all its cultivated varieties, foremost of which 

 is Concord, to find a genial home here. 



Not only that the various hybrids of Labrusca, with Vinifera, and of 

 your native Vulpina with Labrusca, such as the Clinton family, do as well 

 here as anywhere. Even the Delaware, a hybrid between Labrusca and 

 what appears to be some form of VUis Bourguiniaria, succeeds well, but for 

 the downy mildew. That also is the enemy of the hybrid with VUis 

 vinifera. 



VARIETIES DEVELOPED IN MICHIGAN. 



A hybrid of the wild vitis Labrusca and vitis cordifolia, from the mil- 

 dew regions of Virginia, has given me some second hybrids or crosses, 

 with Delaware and Jefferson, of fine quality and beauty. One such, named 

 Roanoke Eed, placed in the hands of a friend, Henry Purfield of Ann 

 Arbor, your state, last summer passed unscathed by mildew, while even the 

 natives in the vicinity lost their foliage, and the vine appears perfectly 

 hardy there, ripening its wood perfectly. I regard the quality of the fruit 

 equal to that of lona, of the size of Ives. But it is very late, later even 

 than Catawba. Another season will tell whether your season will ripen it 

 or not. 



