xliv 



WILD GRAPES. 



One of our most important grapes, V. labrusca^ or the Northern Fox 

 Grape, does not cross the Alleghanies, being a native of the eastern slope. 

 This grape has been improved by cultivation and has given rise to all our 

 larger-berried varieties, as Isabella, Catawba, Concord, etc. 



V. cssiivah's, or Summer Grape, is abundant throughout a great part of 

 the United States, but does not grow wild west of the woods of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. This grape is the base of the Virginia Seedling, the Herbe- 

 mont, and other cultivated varieties. 



V. riparia of Michaux, also known in this neighborhood as the June 

 grape, and the River-bank grape, grows farther north than any of the 

 others, being found at Lake Superior, and, skipping the plains, is found 

 on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It also grows in Texas. 

 But in the east it does not seem to occur south of Pennsylvania. It is an 

 early grape, and sweet and very palatable. 



V. cordifolia, or winter grape, does not grow north of New York and 

 Central Illinois, but at Washington and Philadelphia it is the most com- 

 mon grape. The trunk of this grape is the largest of all, being sometimes 

 from eight to twelve inches in diameter, at least in the river bottoms of the 

 Mississippi Valley, and climbing the highest trees; its fruit is rather 

 disagreeable. 



The French are now obtaining from the woods in this vicinity a large 

 number of cuttings and an immense quantity of seed, principally of V. 

 riparia, but also of other species, having discarded the Labrusca entirely. 

 As the Labrusca does not grow wild in this region, there is no danger of 

 getting here hybrid varieties. Our wild grapes are used in France as stocks 

 to graft their own vines on, in the expectation that the American stock 

 will resist the destruction of the Phylloxera, which has made such sad 

 havoc among their grapevines. It has already destroyed one entire fourth 

 of the French vineyards, thereby crippling materially the prosperity of 

 the country. 



December 15, 1879. 



Dr. Stevens in the chair. Eleven members present. 



Dr. G. Hambach exhibited a fossil bird in excellent preserva- 

 tion, w^hich he had just received from Colorado. 



Mr. Nipher exhibited the portable electrometer of Sir William 

 Thomson, and explained the theory of its action. 



The Corresponding Secretary then made his 



ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1879. 



To the President of the Academy of Science. 



The operations of the Corresponding Secretary for the year 1S79 have 

 been conducted in like manner as in former years, and the result shows 

 the continued prosperity of our foreign correspondence. 



