THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. l6l 



a coarse grape with so much foxiness of flavor that it did not please the 

 early growers, who had been accustomed to European sorts, as a table- 

 grape, but it made a very good wine of the claret type and was grown for 

 this purpose until displaced by the Catawba. It was wine made from this 

 variety that Thomas Jefferson' pronounced "worthy of the best vineyards 

 of France." The early writers differ so in their estimates of the good and 

 bad qualities of this grape that it is hard to give its true characters at this 

 late date. 



The early history of Alexander is really the history of two varie- 

 ties: the Schuylkill Muscadel and the Clifton Constantia. The first of 

 these varieties was, according to Bartram, found growing in the vicinitv 

 of Philadelphia on the hills bordering the Schuylkill River in the neighbor- 

 hood of an old vineyard of European grapes. The finder, John Alexander, 

 was gardener to Governor Penn of Pennsylvania, into whose garden he 

 introduced it a few years before the American Revolution. It was later 

 known as Tasker's grape from a Mr. Tasker of Maryland who cultivated 

 it largely. The Clifton Constantia, according to Adlum, originated with 

 William Clifton of Southwark, Philadelphia, who states that it was a chance 

 seedling in his garden. Adlum says that the two varieties had been con- 

 fused, that " they are much alike in the growth of the vine and the color 

 of the grape but the Schuylkill has rather the largest berries and is sweeter, 

 and generally has a small shoulder or branch with four or five grapes on it 

 growing out from the top of the bunch." Prince also describes the varie- 

 ties as separate, but he says " they are generally cultivated and considered 

 as synonymous." Later writers consider the two grapes identical. 



Peter Legaux, the promoter of a vineyard company at Spring Mill, 

 about fourteen miles from Philadelphia, secured some vines of the Clifton 

 Constantia from Clifton and later introduced it under the name of Cape 

 grape stating that he had secured it from the Cape of Good Hope. Whether 

 he did this purposely and with intent to defraud or whether he had acci- 

 dentally mixed the cuttings secured from Clifton with some of a large num- 

 ber of cuttings which had come from abroad will never be known. When 



' Adlum, John. Cultivation of the Vine: 14Q. 1828. 

 II 



