AUTHENTIC HYBRID BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND MUSCADINE GRAPE 



It is so difficult to hybridize Muscadine grapes with European grapes that doubt has often 

 been cast on the genuineness of some of the alleged hybrids. This photograph shows that 

 there can be no doubt about the hybrid nature of those secured by the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. The hybrid shows its rotundifolia parentage by simple tendrils, leaf texture, 

 and stem, and its vinifera parentage by forked tendrils, leaf lobes and variable size of leaf- 

 serrations. Other characters are more or less intermediate. (Fig. 18.) 



In 1916 a still larger crop of hybrid 

 seeds was secured from breeding work, 

 and is now being grown. 



The Department's success in pro- 

 ducing Muscadine-Euvitis hybirds is 

 attributable to the perfecting of 

 methods, the use of varieties of greatest 

 congeniality, and the selection of 

 healthy, vigorous vines as parents. Of 

 the commercial varieties of Muscadines, 

 Thomas seems most congenial to Euvitis 

 pollen. A number of the Department's 

 seedling varieties, however, are even 

 more readily hybridized. Certain 

 Euvitis pollens can be more successfully 

 used than others. These lines of con- 



geniality have been -estabHshed by 

 experience. In hybridizing, only Mus- 

 cadines have been used as the female 

 parent; because of their dioeciousness, 

 and because Euvitis pollen can be 

 shipped more successfully than Musca- 

 dine pollen. V. vinifera pollen has 

 been collected in the Department's 

 experiment vineyards at Oakville and 

 Fresno, Cal., by associates and mailed 

 to Willard, N. C., where it was used in 

 hybridization work after testing to 

 prove its viability. Other Euvitis pol- 

 lens have been collected at the Depart- 

 ment's experiment vineyard at Vineland, 

 N. J., and mailed to Willard for use. 



While the hybrids have not yet 

 fruited, it is an important result of 

 breeding work to be able to say that 

 Muscadinia x Etivitis hybrids are being 

 secured in quantity. The hybridity is 

 conclusively proved by their possession 



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