Chapter I. 

 Botany of American Grapes 



Introductory Remarks on Classification 



The importance of such work as this is apparent when we consider that the Vinifcra varieties, 

 which all along have supplied the world with wine, with table and raisin grapes, are an easy prey 

 of Phylloxera, Downy Mildew and Black Rot, and that these maladies are yearly spreading, that 

 satisfactory remedies have as yet not been found, save in rot- and phylloxera-resisting American 

 vines, and that we have several species w T hich are eminently resistive, making excellent stocks to 

 graft the Vinifera upon, and also possessed of qualities of fruit, which, by aid of intelligent 

 selection and hybridization, have given direct producers of great value. The importance of not 

 postponing longer such w r ork, is very great, when we consider that no previous special and 

 extended scientific study of the genus, upon growing vines in their native homes and side by side 

 in the vineyard through every stage of grow r th from the seed to the mature vine, has been made 

 in this country, and that from the character of the vine and the greediness with which the cattle 

 devour all species of it, most of the species of greatest value, in a few years, will become almost 

 extinct in their native habitats by the increasing inroads of land-clearing and stock-browsing, 

 and thus the fine wild varieties, which should be searched out and saved as the basis of future 

 vineyards, will be lost forever and not even their history be known, or in what region those in 

 cultivation had their origin. 



It is important in such a treatise, that the classification be based as far as possible upon 

 natural relationships and adaptabilities, that the descriptions be so minute and full that any 

 person with the slightest botanical knowledge can at once identify a species by the descriptions, 

 even if only a part of a plant be had in hand. To construct such descriptions requires great 

 familiarity with and long continued careful observation of many individuals of each species treated. 

 It requires a familiarity with the best authors to avoid confusion in classification and nomencla- 

 ture. It requires the study of the species in their native soils and climates, and the extent of 

 their natural distributions. It requires abundant herbarial specimens from many regions for 

 comparison, and also growing vines in vineyard culture, to make such a work comprehensive 

 and enduring. Above all, it requires a keen observer, and unswerving regard for pure facts, 

 correlative comparison and cautious conclusions on every theoretical point. 



With these requirements in mind, has the writer pursued this study purely for the love of it, 

 repeatedly reviewing all his former work, revising, correcting and making many new investiga- 

 tions, traveling long journeys, conducting expensive correspondence, sparing no pains or expense 

 to make the work what it should be, regardless of the compensation that might be awarded him 

 in its publication. 



Classification 



Various orders of classification might be used according to certain characteristic markings 

 that might be chosen from, roots, wood, leaves, clusters, berries, or seeds, or by combination of 

 two or more such characteristics. 



Were it possible to obtain the chronological order of development of the species \vith their 

 first progenitors as they branched off from the great family of Ampclidece to become true grapes, 

 it would be an easy matter to make the natural and most proper classification, by giving the 

 chronology of procession with the interminglings of the prior species of Ampelidea into hybrids 



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