dian, North Canadian, and some branches of the upper Arkansas River, and in canons and dry 

 sandy ravines opening into the valleys of these streams, in western parts of Oklahoma, 

 all the northwestern part of Texas, eastern part of New Mexico, and southeastern part of 

 Colorado, all on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, and gradually assumes the form of 

 V. Arizonica as it passes through the mountains in New Mexico. Through all its range it seems 

 to take the place of V. rupestris and V. vulpina, as though these two species had been blended, 

 and with also the woolly aspect of V. Arizonica, and some taint of V. candicans. I do not mean 

 that it is purely and recently a hybrid production, but thus related in its characteristics, for it 

 has a well characterized specific make-up of its own.* 



24. VITIS RUPESTRIS, Scheele, Linn. 21, p. 591. (See Plate XXXIV.) 



Synonyms: Botanical, none. 



Synonyms: Common. 



"Sand Beach" or "Sugar Grape," "July Grape," "Currant Grape," "Rock Grape." 



Plant: Vine tapering rapidly, erect or ascending, much branched, scarcely climbing, rarely 

 more than 4 to 8 feet. Leaves expand -very rapidly in unfolding tips, and thus give the summits 

 of branches a -very leafy appearance. 



Roots: Slender, wiry, penetrating, not transversely wrinkled. 



Wood: When young smooth, slightly 5 to 6 angled, red, becoming cylindrical and finely 

 striated when mature, with bark of a dark cinnamon color, grows darker with age, remaining 

 quite persistent, rarely scaling off in plates until third or fourth year and then in broad non-fibrous 

 plates; wood dense, not very hard; sectional view shows rays thin and numerous, with small 

 pores, generally in one row, between; nodes slightly enlarged, nearly straight, diaphragm 1/16' 

 to 1/12' thick, nearly plane, buds small, globose or sub-conical, slightly three angled and acute 

 on the most mature annual wood, covered mostly with brown scales in expanding; small, crimson 

 tendrils, smooth; internodes very short 1' to 3'; pith rather large, enlarging downward in each 

 internode toward diaphragm. 



Leaves : Stipules large, lanceolate, membranaceous, crimson; petiole deeply and broadly grooved 

 above throughout its length, distinctly striated, usually smooth, sometimes thinly pubescent along 

 the striae but always pubescent at the insertion where it forks into ribs, nearly always dark 

 crimson, set at obtuse angle with midrib; blade from insertion of petiole to summit usually 

 about the same length as petiole, and 3/5 to 3/4 the' width of leaf, very peculiar proportions 

 usual width 3' to 4', often 5' to 8', reniform if flattened out, but on the plant, standing on the 

 petiole 1/2 to 3 /^folded together toward the upper surface, thus exposing mostly the lower surface to 

 view and giving pale green aspect to plant when in leaf; the midrib curving downward from 

 the petiole and the blade so full that -when pressed out it almost invariably folds upon itself ; basal 

 sinus very broad, sometimes truncate, but usually terminating acutely at insertion of petiole; teeth 

 large, shallow convex with short mucronate tips, summit short taper- pointed, margins never pubes- 

 cent; venation from mostly 5, rarely 4 or 6 pairs of generally opposite ribs, with very little promi- 

 nence; sometimes pubescent tufts in axils of ribs; both surfaces quite smooth; color, above, dark 

 green, below of light yellowish-green; texture dense, somewhat leathery but fragile. Blade on 

 ground shoots of old roots often a little lobed, on one year seedlings rarely if ever lobed. 



* A. Millardet in his "Histoire des Principales Varietes et Especes de Vignesd'Origine Americaine," pp. 25 to 29, 

 regards this a complex hybrid form, but the wide distribution over hundreds of miles of territory in Northwestern 

 Texas, where only this species exists, proves this view erroneous, unless we should say it probably originated in by- 

 gone ages as a mixture and now it is sufficiently fixed in type and extended in distribution to rank well, at least 

 among our younger species of Vitis. In a viticultural aspect it is well worthy of specific distinction, and in actual 

 aspect in vineyard among other species it is most readily distinguished. In extended journeys in its native region, 

 the writer has never seen V, rupestris or V candicans except the latter along its eastern border of distribution. No 

 other species has been seen by me in that large area where it is so abundant, save frequently V. Doaniana. Both 

 these bear quite uniform specific characteristics throughout that region In millions of separate plants, and to call 

 them all hybrids as friend Viala does in his "Mission Viticole" and "Adaptation" seems to me to be quite a new 

 application of the term, 



101 



