THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



51 



the South in legend, tradition and history. Undoubtedly they were culti- 

 vated for their fruit or as ornamentals in garden or vineyards from the 

 earliest colonial times. It is certain that wine was made from the different 

 wild types of Vitis rotundifolia from the settlement of Jamestown and if not 

 brought under cultivation at an early day it was because the bountifulness 

 of the wild vines obviated the necessity of domesticating them. It was of 

 this grape that Amadas and Barlowe wrote in 1584 " in all the world the like 

 abundance is not to be found." 



The word Scuppernong' is often used to designate a group of grapes 

 rather than as a varietal name; for, there are the black Scuppernong, the 

 white or green Scuppernong and the red Scuppernong, all much alike except 

 in color of fruit and in a few minor characters of vine. Indeed, where 

 Vitis rotundifolia grows wild, all of the forms are often included in the term 

 Scuppernong. The species is often known, too, as the Muscadine or Southern 

 Muscadine. 



While the Labruscas were becoming established in the North and the 

 Scuppernongs in the South, two other species, one northern and one southern, 

 came into prominence with varieties which for wine-making at least were 

 far superior to any other native sorts. The southern species is Vitis aesti- 

 valis, best represented then and now by Norton while the northern species 

 is Vitis riparia and its variety under cultivation was the Clinton, which 

 still remains one of the best representatives of the species.^ It is strange 

 that these four species v/ere brought under cultivation only when wild 

 forms of them, so striking in value that they still remain a hundred 

 5'ears later standard cultivated varieties, had l-)een found. Vitis labntsca 

 represented by Catawba, Vitis rotundifolia, by Scuppernong, Vitis aesti- 

 valis, by Norton, and Vitis riparia, by Clinton, are, after a century of 

 improvement, with several hiindred varieties, scarcely excelled by others 



'Calvin Jones writing June 17, 1817, in the American Fanner, 3:332, from Raleigh, North 

 Carolina, gives the following account of the n.-ime Scuppernong: " This grape & wine, had the name 

 of Scuppernong, given to them by Henderson & myself, in compliment to Jas. Blount, of Scuppernong, 

 •who first diffused a general knowledge of it in several well written communications in our paper — and 

 it is cultivated with more success on that river, than in any other part of the state, perhaps, except 

 the Island of Roanoke." It is worthy of note that Scuppernong is largely a sea-board name for 

 Vitis rotundifolia and is not commonly applied to it outside of the Atlantic States. 



' There is some evidence to show that the Clinton contains Labrusca blood. 



