396 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



ries have dried into raisins. The fruit ships and keeps well, 

 the berries adhering to the cluster and the fruit retaining its 

 freshness into late winter. Jefferson is widelj' distributed and 

 is well known by viticulturists in eastern America. It is not 

 particular as to localities, if the season be long and the climate 

 temperate, and thrives in all soils. The variety originated with 

 J. H. Ricketts, Xewburgh, New York; it fruited first in 1874. 



Vine vigorous, healthy, douhtfully hard}-, productive. Canes 

 short, numerous, Ught to dark brown ; nodes enlarged, round ; inter- 

 nodes short ; tendrils intermittent, short, bifid or trifid. Leaves 

 healthy ; upper surface light green, older leaves rugose ; lower surface 

 pale green, strongly pubescent ; leaf usually not lobed with terminus 

 acute ; petiolar sinus narrow, sometimes closed and overlapping ; basal 

 sinus usually absent ; lateral sinus shallow, often a mere notch ; teeth 

 regular, shallow. Flowers self-ferlile, open late ; stamens upright. 



Fruit late, keeps and ships well. Clusters large, cyhndrical, usually 

 single-shouldered, sometimes dQuble-shouldered, compact; pedicel 

 short, slender with a few inconspicuous warts ; brush long, slender, 

 pale yellowish-green. Berries medium in size, oval, light and dark red, 

 glossy -uith thin bloom, persistent, very firm ; skin thick, tough, free, 

 slightly astringent; flesh light green, translucent, juicy, coarse-grained, 

 tender, vinous ; good to best. Seeds free, one to four, broad, short, 

 blunt, plump, brown. 



Jessica 



(Labnisca, Vinifera) 



Jessica is an early, hardy, green grape. The fruit is sweet, 

 rich, sprightly and almost free from foxiness, but is unattrac- 

 tive and does not keep well. The clusters and berries are 

 small, and the clusters are too loose for a good grape. Jessica 

 may be commended for earlincss and hardiness and is, there- 

 fore, desirable, if at all, in northern regions. William H. 

 Read, Port Dalhousie, Ontario, grew Jessica from seed planted 

 some time between liS7() and 1880. 



Vine medium in vigor, healthy, hardy, productive. Canes long, 

 thick, dark brown with red tinge ; nodes enlarged, flattened ; inter- 



