PREFACE. IX 



A number of considerations have governed the selection of varieties 

 for full descriptions. These are: First, the value of a variety for the com- 

 mercial or amateur grower for any part of the State as determined by the 

 records of this Station, by reports collected from over 2000 grape-growers, 

 and by published information from whatever source. Second, the prob- 

 able value of new sorts as determined by their behavior elsewhere. Third, 

 to show combinations of species or varieties, or new characters hitherto 

 unknown in fruit c^r vine, or to portra)' the range in variation, or to suggest 

 to the ])lant-breeder a course of future development. Fourth, a few sorts 

 have been described because of their historical value — for the retrospec- 

 tion of the grape-grower of the present and the future. It is needless to 

 say that manv of the varieties described are worthless to the cultivator. 



In all of the descriptions the effort has been to depict living plants 

 and not things existing only in books; to give a pen picture of them that 

 will show all of their characters. An attempt has been made, too, to show 

 the breeding of the plants, their relationships; to show what combination 

 of characters exist in the different groups of varieties; to designate, as far 

 as possible, the plastic types; in short to show grapes as variable, plastic 

 plants capable of further improvement and not as unchangeable organ- 

 isms restricted to definite forms. 



It is hoped that the color-plates will be of great service in illustrating 

 the text. All possible means at the command of photography and color 

 printing have been used to make them exact reprodtictions. The speci- 

 mens, too, have Vjeen selected with the utmost care. In preparing these 

 illustrations the thought has been that technical descriptions, however 

 simply written, are not easily understood, and that the readiest means of 

 comparison and identification for the average reader would be found in 

 the color-plates. Through these and the accompanying descriptions it is 

 hoped that all who desire may accj^uire, with time and patience, a knowl- 

 edge of the botanical characters of grapes and thereby an understanding 

 of the technical descriptions. The plates have been made under the per- 

 sonal supervision of the writer. 



With all care possible, due allowance must yet be made for the failure 

 to reproduce nature exactly in the color-plates. The plates are several 

 removes from the fruit. Four negatives were taken of each subject with 



