THE CAPE GRAPE 43 



when the imported varieties failed, the project was 

 apparently abandoned. 



This Cape grape appears to have been really an 

 offshoot of the wild fox -grape, or Vitis Labrusca, 

 and it is, therefore, the forerunner of the varieties 

 which we now cultivate everywhere in our vineyards. 

 It was also known as the Schuylkill Muscadel and 

 Clifton's Constantia. These names are kept distinct 

 by Adlum, the earliest writer upon the native grape, 

 who declared that it was the Constantia which was 

 grown by Mr. Legaux, and which was "foisted on the 

 public as the Cape of Good Hope grape." The Con- 

 stantia came up in William Clifton's garden, in Phil- 

 adelphia, "by chance, * * * as it never was 

 planted or sown by him, or any of his family." The 

 Muscadel type "was found growing near Schuylkill 

 River, by a Mr. Alexander, the gardener to one of the 

 Mr. Penns, while Governor of Pennsylvania, before 

 the American Revolution." Johnson, in 1806, fol- 

 lowing the opinions of Legaux, speaks of the Con- 

 stantia as coming from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and of the Alexander as a grape "found in many 

 parts of the middle states, and most probably in the 

 northern if not in the southern." Whether the 

 Alexander and Constantia were really identical, as 

 modern writers affirm, will probably never be known; 

 but I strongly suspect that they represent two natu- 

 ral but very similar varieties. The Cape grape is 

 now known in the books under the name of Alex- 

 ander.* 



*It is strange, however, that a specimen in the herbarium of the Phila. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. labeled "Trasker's or Alexander grape," and said to have 

 been collected by Nuttall, is Vitis cinereai but the labels must have been 

 shifted in the progress of time. 



