68 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



BOD, K. Y., and an outline, together with a report of the Committee on Native 

 Fruits appears in its transactions for that year, at page 201 ; 



" The Eebecca originated in the garden of Mr. E. M. Peake, Hudson, N. Y., 

 about eight years ago. Mr. Peake's garden is in one of the thickly settled 

 streets of the city, and nearly the usual size of a lot, perhaps one hundred by 

 one hundred and fifty feet deep. Between the house and the street there is a 

 gmall flower garden. It was here that the original vine grew. Mrs. Peake 

 was about making some alterations in her flower beds, and this vine being in 

 her way, her gardener advised her to dig it up, as it was only * an old wild 

 grape.' But disliking to destroy it, she removed it with her own hands, and 

 planted it very carelessly in the garden back of the house, in a very poor and 

 cold clay soil. Here the vine made slow progress, but continued to increase in 

 size until the third or fourth year, when it produced a few clusters of small 

 white grapes. These appeared to possess eo much merit, and were so much 

 better than had been expected, that pains were taken to feed and nourish it, 

 and prune it into shape, and it soon repaid all the labor bestowed upon it. It 

 grew vigorously, making shoots ten or fifteen feet long, and bore abundant 

 crops of the most delicious grapes, until at the present time it has reached the 

 top of the house, and covers a trellis, ten feet wide and twenty-five feet high, 

 loaded with fruit. 



"Bunches medium size, about six inches long, very compact, without 

 shoulders. Berries medium size, obovate, about three-quarters of an inch in 

 diameter. Skin thin, greenish white, becoming of a pale amber color at full 

 maturity, covered with a thin white bloom. Flesh very juicy, soft and melt- 

 ing, and free from pulp. Flavor rich, sugary, vinous, and brisk, with a pecul- 

 iar musky and luscious aroma, distinct from any other grape. Seeds small, 

 two to four in each berry. Leaves scarcely of medium size, about seven 

 inches long and seven in width, very deeply loped, and coarsely and sharply 

 serrated ; upper surface light green, slightly rough ; under surface covered with 

 a thin whitish down ; nerves prominent; petioles rather slender." 



(Signed) ' W. D. BEINOKLE, Chairman. 



It was shown the same year at the annual exhibition of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, and was noticed in the next issue of the Magazine of 

 Horticulture, with the following rather faint praise : " It is a white grape, about 

 the size of the Diana, and with bunches about as large ; in flavor fully equal 

 to that superb grape." It is again noticed, outlined and described in the 

 November issue of the same volume, the notice closing with the following very 

 high commendation, in which all will doubtless concur, if it is to be confined 

 strictly to the quality of the fruit: "The addition of a few more grapes of 

 Buch excellence as the Rebecca, would nearly or quite obviate the necessity of 

 constructing houses for the growth of the foreign kinds, for we consider it far 

 superior to the Sweetwater, so long the standard of a fine variety. To our 

 taste there are few varieties of foreign grapes we should prefer to the Rebecca." 



In the Horticulturist for 1857 the editor writes, after having enjoyed a fine 

 opportunity of comparing Delaware and Rebecca : " Good as the Delaware is, 

 the Rebecca is very superior, and we are free to say it is, in our opinion, the 

 best out-of-door grape we have." 



The Rebecca in our climate will usually ripen from the 10th to the 20th of 

 Se})tem ber. 



This fruit bears some very decided evidence of being a hybrid between the 

 native fox grape of the east and a foreign variety. It is not a strong grower. 



