ISABELLA GRAPE— ITS HISTORY, &.c. 



whenever it has been convenient, I have passed the hours of reading and study. The cli 

 mate of a cold green-house, in a sunny day of the winter or spring, is a Florida climate, 

 and is entirely different from that of an artificially heated atmosphere. I venture to re- 

 commend it under most circumstances, to pulmonary invalids, in preference to the more 

 expensive plan of removal to the South, involving, as it does, much discomfiture, inter- 

 ruption of business, hazardous exposure, and entire separation from friends. 



While on this subject, I am induced to speak of the importance of glass structures for 

 convalescents in hospitals. The New-York Hospital has already been, and the Ward's 

 Island Hospital will soon be provided with such structures, of which the importance can 

 scarcely be over-estimated. Who that has noticed the instinctive desire of man and ani- 

 mals, to bask in the sun, Avill fail to appreciate the advantage of providing the means of 

 such enjoyment for those who are able to leave a sick room. 



And now, sir, I leave the matter in your hands. What men of wealth may do for them- 

 selves, and what the public may do for its charities, the public should do for the middling 

 classes and the poor. They should establish winter gardens in all our great cities. 



I am, &c. A. H. Stevens. 



Astoria, Long-Island, July 17, 1851. 



THE ISABELLA GRAPE — ITS HISTORY, etc. 



BY L. F. ALLEN, BLACK ROCK, N. Y. 



Fruits — indeed anything which have become celebrated — are an interesting subject of 

 history. Of such is the Isabella Grape, a story about which, many years ago — perhaps 

 twenty — I chronicled in the Genesee Farmer, published in Rochester. As my attention 

 was again called to the subject a day or two since, in a pleasant interview with my old 

 friend and acquaintance. General Joseph G. Swift, long connected with our armj^, and 

 for many years past with the Topographical Engineer Corps of the general government, 

 and now a resident of Geneva, N. Y., I refer to it for the purpose of putting the record in 

 a more enduring form in the pages of the Horticulturist. 



I first knew the Isabella grape, when a boy, in Norwich, Connecticutj about the year 

 1817 or 18. It then grew in several gardens there, and from its great luxuriance, and the 

 fine flavor of its fruit, I became exceedingly interested in its origin. The parent vine was 

 traced to the garden attached to what was called the " Vernet House," which stood near 

 what was then " the Landing," now Norwich city. Into that garden, some years before 

 the late war with England, say 1807, 8, or 9, the grape was introduced by Mr. Vernet, 

 a French West Indian, who built the house, and there resided several years. Where he 

 brought the grape from was unknown; but as he was largely engaged in the West India 

 trade, it was supposed he brought it from one of the French West India islands. The 

 vine then had no other name there, than the " Vernet Grape." I have since grown it 

 from cuttings obtained from the original stock in Norwich, and roots of the Isabella sent 

 me from the Brooklyn nurseries, side by side; and the vines, in leaf, growth, habit, and 

 fruit, were identical. 



In the city of New-York, about 1825, or '6, I became acquainted with the Isabella 

 Grape, and immediately recognised it as the Vernet Grape of Norwich. In 1828, the 

 late William Prince, nurseryman, of the Linnsean Garden, in Flushing, Long-Isl 

 published " A Short Treatise on Horticulture," on page 51 of which occurs the follow 



