good shoots ; the other branch grew very well, and produced a few grapes. This, the fourth 

 year, the vine produced a beautiful crop of grapes, most of the fruit spurs having three, 

 and some four perfect bunches. We gathered a hundred bunches from the one vine, some 

 of which were finely shouldered, and as firm as ' Miller's Burgundy,' and looked as if chiselled 

 from amber. They were exhibited at our ' county fair,' and distributed among the ' diggers,' 

 and pronounced 'very best.' The flavor is much better when freshly gathered than after a 

 few days' keeping. The wood, last winter, did not sufi"er a particle, even at the slenderest 

 ends of the shoots, although the thermometer was again about 20^ below zero. Here, where 

 we have a good horticultural society, and think we know something about fruit, we con- 

 sider the Delaware Grape the best table grape for out-door culture we have ever had (the 

 Rebecca has not yet reached us), and unhesitatingly pronounce it perfectly hardy. It is a 

 little discouraging to start, but when obtained, it fully pays for all one's care and patience. 

 There are no vines here to sell, and it is in great demand. 



Respectfully, H. C. Noble." 



We have a valuable communication from Mr. Samuel Miller, of Calmdale, Pa., 

 respecting some other important additions to our stock of new and hardy grapes, 

 which shall appear in January. 



HYBRIDIZING GRAPES. 



BY A PRACTICAL GARDENER, BOSTON, MASS. 



In Mr. W. N. White's interesting report on the grapes of Georgia, I notice the 

 following sentence : "We would not, however, assert that hybridization, naturally 

 or artificially, is absolutely impossible, but nearly so, &c." So excellent a 

 botanist as Le Conte is also quoted, as doubting the possibility of hybridization 

 ever occurring in the genus Yitis. At first reading, I was rather surprised to 

 find such opinions recorded by such authorities, as hybridization is an everyday 

 occurrence amongst practical grape growers. In early forcing it is often very 

 difficult to get the various kinds of Muscats to set their fruit properly, owing to 

 their stamens proving abortive; this they usually remedy by impregnating the 

 flowers with the pollen of any other grape they may have in bloom at the time, 

 and in that case generally get a pretty full crop of fruit. This, of course, is all 

 that is required to hybridize a grape ; and if it were desired to hybridize any 

 variety artificially, all that would be necessary would be to destroy the stamens 

 before the pollen had matured ; even though the petals had to be destroyed to 

 get to them, the essential organs of reproduction would not be injured thereby. 

 The cohering of the petals when they exist are no doubt a bar to natural hybrid- 

 ization ; but I have no doubt that the petals are occasionally abortive in a 

 natural state, as I have already stated the stamens are in an artificial one. Many 

 plants are now known to be polygamous that botanists have been in the habit of 

 considering to bear perfect flowers in all cases ; and as the grape-vine is certainly 

 so at times under artificial treatment, there may be circumstances arise in a natural 

 state sufficient to induce it to change its sexual character there also, and to explain 

 many things which otherwise seem improbable. 



It is rather startling, after we have heard so much of the valuable hybrids of 

 Mr. J. F. Allen, of Salem, and others, now to be told that such hybrids arc 

 impossible. 



In another part of the same number of the IlorticuIhtHsf, another writer recom- 

 mends to hybridize the native with the foreign grape in order to improve it. 

 This is well worth trial, though it may not succeed ; for, though there is nothing 

 in the structure of the flower to prevent the attempt, which may not be overcome 

 by artificial means, yet there maybe physiological peculiarities which often forbid 

 the intermixture of as closely allied plants as the different species of grapes. 



