THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 95 



CHAPTER IV 



SPECIES OF AMERICAN GRAPES. 



THE GENUS VITIS. 



The genus Vitis was formed and named by Tournefort,' a French 

 botanist, more than two hundred years ago. In his work, Institutiones 

 Rei Hcrhariac, pubhshed in Paris in 1700, he gives the following descrip- 

 tion of this genus: 



" The Vitis is a genus of plant with a (A) flower shaped like a rose, 

 with many petals placed uniformly in a circle, out of the middle of which 

 arises the pistil (B), with stamens pressed together (C), the flower (D,E,F) 

 folds upward; the pistil develops into an edible berry (E), fleshy, full of 

 juice, and usually with four seeds (H,I), the seeds are pear-shaped (K)." 



The capital letters in the parentheses refer to illustrations. These 

 indicate that Tournefort had a very clear conception of the flowering 

 parts of a grape. He gives twenty-one species under this genus of which 

 nine are American, one, however, being our Virginia creeper. Tournefort's 

 work is all very indefinite; others of the species than those credited to 

 America may be American, and it is quite possible that of the nine some 

 would not be classed among the grapes to-day. Each species is credited 

 to some previous botanist and it is evident that Tournefort was a compiler 

 rather than an original worker with grapes. 



The next botanist who contributed to our knowledge of this genus was 

 Linnaeus, the great Swedish systematist, who, in his Genera Plantarum, 1754, 

 gives the following description of the flower (Like Tournefort's, Linnaeus' 

 book is written in Latin and the extracts here given are free translations) : 



" Calyx. Five-toothed, small. 



" Corolla. Petals five, rudimentary, small, caducous. 



' Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a French botanist of considerable reputation in his day, was born 

 at Aix, Provence, in 1656 and died in 1 708. He was educated by the Jesuits for a priest but following 

 a natural inclination he later became a botanist. In 1683 he became professor of botany at the 

 Jardin des Plantes in Paris. While occupying this position he made trips through western Europe, 

 Greece and Asia Minor. His principal work, and the one quoted here, is Institutiones Rei Hcrbariae 

 in three volumes, published in Paris in 1700. He was one of the most prominent systematic bota- 

 nists who preceded Linnaeus. 



