26. VITIS MUNSONIANA, Simpson, Am. Pom. Soc. Rep., p. 16, for 1885. (See Plate 

 XXXVI.) 



Synonym : 



Vitis rotundifolia, var. "Mustang," Chapman, 71. 



"Bird Grape," "Everbearing Grape," "Everlasting Grape" in Southeastern Florida, 

 "Mustang Grape." 



This description is chiefly copied from letters of Mr. J. H. Simpson to the writer, and is 

 fully confirmed in vineyard at Denison. 



Plant: Very slender growth, much more slender than V. rotundifolia; often branching, 

 tips extending rapidly, appearing naked, owing to slow expansion of leaves. 



Roots: Large, little fibrous, pale yellow, covered with thick, firm warty bark, transversely 

 wrinkled, possessing a fiery pungency, penetrating. 



Wood: When young 6 to 7 angled, dark red or crimson, nearly smooth or thinly set with 

 silky hairs, with age becoming covered with numerous minute punctate dots or lenticose cells, 

 like warts set in rows on the fine unequal striae, becoming more distinct and increasing with 

 age till the vine has a rasp-like feeling as though covered with coarse sand, and acquiring a dark 

 gray color; bark with little checking, no thready fiber, closely persistent; transverse section of 

 ripe wood oval, with age becoming elliptical or even depressed elliptical, dense but less so than 

 V. rotundifolia; nodes very little enlarged, and slightly bent; pith and diaphragm none; buds 

 small, globose in young shoots, acute, at maturity, dark reddish-brown in unfolding, very small, 

 slender, rusty green, tip half open; tendrils simple, in rare cases a little forked, one fork being 

 very short, 3' to 5' long, with a node 1' to 2' from base, from which node in bearing vines the 

 cluster proceeds, the balance of tendril always remaining normal, faintly striated, warty, reddish 

 when young, soon shedding unless clinging to some object, then becoming moderately strong; 

 internodes 1' to 5' long; the greenish cellular wood in place of pith medium size, seemingly 

 continuous, but more dense at node than elsewhere, color dark green, very firm but less dense 

 than V. rotundifolia, non-fibrous, drying sometimes into discs. 



Leaves: Stipules very small, 1/12' long, orbicular, margin ciliate, pale pinkish; petiole 

 usually as long as half the width of blade, sometimes more, more slender than in V. rotundifolia 

 and proportionately shorter, deeply and distinctly grooved above, finely pubescent, purplish 

 crimson, attached to blade at right or more acute angle; blade from \]/ 2 to 2 1/2' wide, average 

 l/4 r . by l^' to 3' long, average 2*4'; nearly plane, appearing peltate when at a short dis- 

 tance from the vine, especially when attached to petiole at acute angle; basal sinus narrowly A 

 shaped, sometimes broad, often closed; generally not lobed, often shouldered, sometimes the 

 shoulders cut with a wide-acute deep notch, partially from the center lobe, making lacinately 

 3 lobed leaves, apex usually acute pointed, rarely acuminate; teeth broad, 17 to -25 to each leaf, 

 broadly acute to right angled, with margins straight, rarely convex, notches between deeper 

 than in V. rotundifolia; acute or right angled; venation from the generally 4, rarely 3 or 5 pairs 

 of not quite opposite ribs, slightly elevated, more than in V. rotundifolia, giving a less rugose 

 appearance to upper surface; small pubescent tufts in forks; young blade folded in bud or growing 

 tip, conduplicate, expanding slowly, delicately hairy, both surfaces smooth at maturity, of a lively 

 green, paler above than in V. rotundifolia; below, a shade paler and more yellowish-green than 

 above, at time of leaf- fall becoming yellow or crimson; texture dense, but less so than in 

 ]'. rotundifolia. Leaves on seedling vines same as in old vine and ground shoots. 



Cluster: Forked, cyme-like, from the node of the tendril; divisions obscurely striated, warty, 

 pale rusty brown when mature; pedicels 1/4' to 1/3' long, medium thick, little enlarged upward, 

 warty. 



Flowers: 12 to 50 in fertile clusters; stamens and petals usually 5, often 6 and sometimes 

 7; in fertile, stamens about 1/12' long, recurved and bent laterally, little or no perceptible disc; 

 ovary small, broad and short; style very short, about half the thickness of ovary, in length; 



107 



