and may indicate traces of that blood) . Venation moderately prominent from the 6, sometimes 

 7 pairs of not quite opposite ribs; pubescent tufts commonly found in forks of ribs; commonly 

 both surfaces smooth except along the ribs which are pubescent; in the pubescent form the veins 

 on lower surface are also quite pubescent and the tufts in forks of ribs very conspicuous. Color 

 rather dark in eastern, lively green in western forms, texture firm but thin, much firmer and 

 thicker in western than in eastern forms. Leaves from ground shoots generally three lobed ; 

 from yearling and seedlings not lobed. 



Cluster: Fertile, small, 3' to 5' long, including peduncle which is 1/3 to 1/2 as long as 

 rachis; shoulder 1/4 to 1/3 as large as main cluster; peduncle and rachis pubescent or smooth; 

 pedicels from little divisions of rachis, or direct, 3/16' to 1/4' long, enlarging slightly toward 

 summit; receptacle small or medium, clusters mostly very compact; staminate cluster much 

 larger than fertile. 



Flowers: Very sweetly scented; fertile, stamens reclining and curving laterally, pollen 

 non-virile when the stamens are reflexed;* staminate, with long or ascending stamens ; pollen 

 very abundant and virile. 



Berries: 1/4' to 1/3' rarely 1/2' in diameter, round, black, very rarely white (have one such 

 found wild in Central Minnesota), heavy prunose bloom when ripe; skin thin, pulp juicy, pure 

 and vinous when fully ripe, until then exceedingly acid; fruit persistent. 



Seeds: 2 to 4, very small to medium, 1/6' to 1/4' long, by 1/8' to 3/16' broad, color of old 

 Rio Coffee; beak very short, poorly defined, acute; raphe scarcely visible from chalaza till it 

 reaches the top of seed, thence becoming a well defined thread reaching the beak; chalaza narrowly 

 elliptical, a little elevated, sometimes a mere crescent at lower side, or none in a very shallow narrow 

 basin; more or less distinct groove from chalaza. to beak, inner or ventral face with slightly curved, 

 short, nearly parallel slight depressions of lighter color than body of seed. 



Plantlet: Cotyledons large, cordate, mostly green or a little reddish. 



Viticultural Observations and Remarks 



Germination quick, vigorous; foliation very early, inflorescence very early, with or before 

 V. Longii and V. rupestris, fruit ripens very early, last of June or first of July, in Northern Texas 

 with Champion, V. rupestris and V. Longii, some varieties later by one and two weeks. 



In sandy and alluvial soils its vigor is excellent where permanent moisture exists below; 

 in very limy soils and poor clay not good; hardiest of all species to endure cold, as in a large 

 extent of country, covering Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota and Manitoba where it is the only 

 native species, it endures from 40 C to 50 (F.) below zero; but in withstanding severe summer 

 heat and long drouth it fails almost equally with V. rupestris, as shown by test in my grounds 

 with vines from many localities in the north. (See Table of Longevity, Chapter II.) Grows- 

 quite easily from cuttings. Pollen prepotent upon other species, when blooming together, equally 

 so with V. rupestris. The fruit of this species is rich in sugar, tartaric acid and coloring 

 matter, as in other species of this series. 



This species is often found hybridized naturally with other species with which it grows- 

 in the woods. In Grayson County, Texas, on the bottom lands of Red River, the writer has- 

 found it mixed with V. candicans, V. cordifolia, and once with V. cinerea, rarely with V. Lin- 

 cecumii. In the Northeastern range, New York, New Jersey, etc., where it comes in contact with 

 V. labrusca, it is often intermingled therewith, as in Clinton, Sherman, Taylor and other wild 



* See pp. 82, 83, and 84, Bulletin from the Botanical Department of the State Agriculture College at Ames, Iowa, 

 by Byron D. Halstead, Sc.D., 1888. I have found the same true with all the other species but the fertile flowers 

 having horizontal or ascending stamens, such as Concord, and many V. labrusca and V. vinifera varieties, in cul- 

 tivation, furnish pollen capable of fertilizing (but less vigorously than the pollen from purely male plants), the pistils 

 of the same or other fertile vines. In effect, -nearly all wild bearing vines are female only and to bear must receive 

 pollen from some vine having erect stamens, either staminate or male vines, or from vines with hermaphrodite flowers. 

 These are important facts either to the practical vineyardist or to the hybridizer, See the Plates XXX VII,, 

 XXXVIII, XXXIX. 



96 



