THE DOMESTICATION OF THE GRAPE 13 



North. The variety is grown only south of the Ohio, and in 

 this great region it is esteemed by all for a dessert grape and 

 for its light red wine. It is one of the few American varieties 

 which finds fa\or in France, being cultivated in southwest 

 France as a wine-grape. Its history goes back to a colony of 

 French Huguenots in Georgia before the Revolutionary War. 

 Very similar to Herbemont is Lenoir, also with a history trac- 

 ing back to the French in the Carolinas or Georgia in the 

 eighteenth century. 



The other subspecies of Vitis oBstivalis is Vitis cBstivalis 

 Lincecumii, the post-oak grape of Texas and of the southern 

 part of the Mississippi Valley. Recently this wild grape has 

 been brought under domestication, and from it has been bred 

 a number of most promising varieties for hot and dry regions. 



The Vulpina or river-bank grapes. 



The North, too, has a wine-grape from which wines nearly 

 equaUng those of the southern ^Estivalis are made. This is 

 Vitis vulpina {V. riparia), the river-bank grape, a shoot of 

 which is show^n in Fig. 5, the most widely distributed 

 of any of the native species. It grows as far north as 

 Quebec, south to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlan- 

 tic to the Rocky Mountains. Fully a century ago, a 

 wine-grape of this species was cultivated under the name 

 Worthington, but the attention of vineyardists was not turned 

 to the Vulpinas until after the middle of the last century, 

 when the qualities of its vines attracted the attention of French 

 viticulturists. Phylloxera had been introduced from America 

 into France and threatened the existence of French vineyards. 

 After trying all possible remedies for the scourge, it was dis- 

 covered that the insect could be overcome by grafting Euro- 

 pean grapes on American vines resistant to phylloxera. A trial 

 of the promising species of New World grapes showed that 

 vines of this species were best suited for the reconstruction of 



