BULLETIN 



ESSEX IlsrSTITTJTEl. 



Vol. 2. Salem, Mass., February, 1870. No. 2. 



One Dollar a Year in Advance. 10 Cents a Single Copy. 



HYBEID GEAPES. 



BY CHARLES H. HIGBEE. 



There are three species of the grape indio-enous to 

 New England, viz. : — Vifis Labrusca (Northern Fox 

 Grape) ; Vitis cestivalis (Summer grape) ; and Vilis cor- 

 difolia (Winter Grape) ; as classified by Gray. Prob- 

 abh^ they have not changed much, if any, in their pecu- 

 liar characteristics for centuries, or since that unknown 

 distant time when species were first so constituted. 

 Although these species have innumerable varieties, that 

 have slight differences of fruit, foliage or habit, yet the 

 great points of semblance are always preserved, and 

 any one familiar with these points, can easily tell to which 

 species any specimen belongs. By the laws of nature 

 they are maintained, aijd an}' change from her standard 

 she looks upon with aversion. The whole life and en- 

 ergy of a plant is devoted to reproducing its kind, and 

 it gives to its offspring the predisposition for its oum 

 cpialities. 



Until lately the wild kinds have been somewhat culti- 

 vated, and almost every garden, twenty years since, con- 



EssEX Inst. Bulletin. 3 



