256 OPEN AIR GRAPE CULTUKE. 



HERBEMONT. 



This is one of the grapes recommended by the 

 American Pomological Society, as promising well. 

 There is so much discrepancy in the descriptions by 

 various authors, that we confess some doubt as to the 

 identity of the varieties described. "We quote the fol- 

 lowing from C. Downing : " This is the most rampant 

 grower of all our hardy grapes, and under favorable 

 circumstances yields a fruit of surpassing excellence, 

 with which the nicest detector of foxiness, thickness 

 of skin, toughness or acidity of pulp, can find no 

 fault ; north of Philadelphia, it needs a warm expo- 

 sure or favorable season for the ful] development of 

 its excellences. In our village, under the care of a 

 lady, it has not failed for many years to give a most 

 abundant crop of perfectly ripened fruit, and without 

 protection has not suffered at all from winter-killing. 

 A very old vine in Baltimore, which had never 

 before failed to produce abundantly since its first 

 bearing, had, last winter, when the mercury fell to 

 19 below zero, all its young wood killed ; but ordi- 

 narily in that latitude and further south, it is an 

 unfailing bearer and particularly fitted for those 

 southern latitudes that are liable to injury from late 

 frosts in spring and early frosts in autumn, as it flow- 

 ers very late and ripens its fruit early. Its leaves in 



