ISABELLA GRAPE— ITS HISTORY, &c. 



They are not more than two-thirds the size of those of New-York, inferior in juice and 

 flavor, and most of them had a shrivelled appearance. Possibly the soil, (a friable lime- 

 stone clay,) is in fault, for a finer climate to perfect their growth and ripening, I can hard- 

 ly imagine. And such, I was told, is the usual character of the Isabella at and about 

 Cincinnati. 



En passant on jlmcrican wines. I was familiarly chatting not long since, at a dinner 

 table over a glass of wine, with a distinguished American — I could tell his name, but for 

 the thought that I were boasting of a great man's acquaintance and friendship — and I 

 named the Champagne Catawba of Cincinnati. "Don't tell me of j^merican yvmas," 

 said he — " we have a thousand good things in America — more than any where else — but 

 we can't make good wines. The uo/canic and other /ria6Ze soils of western Europe, swept 

 by the Atlantic winds, are the only good wine soils of the world, we hear of. From the north- 

 ern coast of the Mediterranean we get some tolerable wines. In eastern Europe, and Asia, 

 we know of none. In California and on our Pacific coast, we may, in time, produce good 

 wines — possibly from the native grape found there; and when so, we'll talk of Ameri- 

 can wines. But for the present we must be content to grow cotton and wool, and our other 

 valuable products for the wine countries of Europe, and let them grow wines for us in re- 

 turn." Perhaps it is so; for I could not gainsay authority so high on such a subject, as 

 on many others, from which there is hardly an appeal. 



Yet, the Champagnes and Ilocks of Cincinnati, are largely drank at the best public 

 tables there, and, I am told, preferred, at the same price, to the foreign Champagnes and 

 llocks. Time must 3'ct test this matter. Yours truly, Lewis F. Allen. 



BmcIc Rock. Juli/, 1S51. 



PiEMARts. — Mr. Allen's account of the origin of the Isabella grape is a valuable con- 

 tribution to our history of native fruits. There is, we think, no doubt whatever that the 

 Isabella grapes in general cultivation over the country at large, all sprung from the origi- 

 nal South Carolina vine whose history is correctly given by Gen. Swii'T. But there is no 

 reason whatever for thinking that vine to have been a hybrid between the Fox grape and 

 the foreign Burgundy. There are indeed, two very good reasons to the contrary. The 

 first is, that any good botanist and vegetable physiologist need not be told that the Isa- 

 bella is a pure unmixed native grape, like the Catawba — having unmistakable character- 

 istics of growth and flavor, without a particle or trace of the habits of the grapes of Eu- 

 rope — a distinct species : the other is, that it differs so little from the native Vitis la- 

 brusca, or summer grape, as to leave no doubt of its being merely a good accidental seed- 

 ling. What Mr. Allen says about the Yernet grape which he knew many years earlier, 

 goes to show that other similar seedlings had accidentally sprung up earlier than that which 

 is now known as the Isabella, and we have also once found a wild vine of this species on the 

 banks of the Hudson, so nearly like the Isabella as not readily to be distinguished from it. 

 The fact that a West India grape would not be hardy in this latitude, settles the conjecture 

 touching that origin of the variety. 



There is, unfortunately, no well authenticated proof that our native grape has ever 

 been hybridised with the grapes of Europe. All our seedlings, so far proved, are chance 

 seedlings — but we believe some of our pomologists are now busy with the experiment of 

 crossing the species if possible — to effect a more speedy amelioration of the hardy native 

 varieties. A cross between Black Hamburgh and Isabella, giving us the size and luscious 

 flavor of the former, and the hardiness of the latter, would be worth untold thousands, 

 to American wine, the question is no longer a mooted one — so far as Hock and 

 ing wine is concerned — for the last and best vintages of the Ohio, have to our own 



