290 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



to make a ver}- good light red wine. The ample, lustrous green foliage makes 

 the variety one of the attractive ornamental plants of the South. 



Herbemont has been much used in grape-breeding and to advantage, for 

 probably no otlier species offers as many desirable characters for the South 

 and Southwest as the one to which this variety belongs and best represents. 

 There are now several pure-bred seedlings of Herbemont under cultivation 

 and a greater number in whicli it is one of the parents. Of the former 

 Black Herbemont and the Onderdonk are good representatives and Jaeger, 

 Delicious, Muench, Vinita, Perry, Mrs. Munson and Neva Munson, all from 

 Munson of Texas, are Herbemont cross-breeds. 



The history of Herbemont, as it must be written from such information 

 as can now be obtained, is scarcely more than a collection of mythical 

 stories The variety is known to have been in cultivation in Georgia before 

 the Revolutionary War, when it was generally known under the name of 

 Warrenton or Warren. In the early part of the last century it came to the 

 hands of Nicholas Herbemont of Columbia, South Carolina, who gave it the 

 name Madeira under a temporary supposition that it came from the island 

 of that name. This name was generally changed to Herbemont's Madeira. 

 Herbemont made the variety known to the public, sending it to William 

 R. Prince of Flushing, Long Island, and Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, 

 the two most prominent viticulturists of that time who, in turn, aided in 

 its distribution. 



There have been many contradictory accounts of the origin of the 

 grape, crediting it to Georgia, the Carolinas, or Europe. None is sup- 

 ported by sufficient evidence to make it creditable and most of them 

 arose at so late a date that it was impossible for the writers to know any- 

 thing about the facts of the case except by hearsay evidence. The early 

 idea of many that it is a Vinifera was soon dropped. Later this variety 

 and others of its class were known as southern Aestivalis; however, it was 

 admitted that they were unlike other southern Aestivalis. Munson gave 

 these grapes the name Bourquiniana, a name that has been accepted as a 

 convenient designation for the group by some who do not accept his account 

 of its origin. The Herbemont and Lenoir are the two varieties commonly 

 referred to as typical of this so-called species. 



The history of the culture of Herbemont in the North has been the 



