92 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



cover why the phylloxera is not a scourge in the land 

 of its birth. The cause was found in the practical 

 immunity of the native vines. At once, there was a 

 demand for cuttings of our wild phylloxera -resistant 

 grapes. But some of the cuttings would not grow, 

 whereas others grew without difficulty. Upon investi- 

 gation, it was found that cuttings of two species had 

 been sent as one species, and the result of the inquiry 

 has been to clearly distinguish two native grapes which 

 theretofore had been much confounded. These are the 

 frost -grape (Vitis cordifolia) and the river -bank grape 

 ( Vitis vulpina, or V. riparia) . The latter is now widely 

 used in Europe as stocks upon which to graft the wine- 

 grape; and so it has come that the species which has 

 produced nothing better in the way of fruit than the 

 Clinton (page 75) is now a corner-stone of the 

 viticulture of the Old World. Other native species 

 have contributed to the phylloxera -resistant stocks of 

 Europe, but this species is chief. The fourth edition 

 of the Descriptive Catalogue of Bush & Son & Meiss- 

 ner has the following remarks of this use of American 

 vine -stocks: "Already millions of American grape- 

 vines are growing in France, hundreds of thousands 

 in Spain, Italy, Hungary, etc. California also im- 

 ported many cuttings of riparia [river -bank grape] 

 vines to graft thereon their European (or vinifera) 

 sorts, which succeed there on our phylloxera -resisting 

 stocks. In February, 1894, Senator Fair purchased 

 from us half a million of such cuttings for his new 

 1,000 -acre vineyards near Lakeville, California." 



All the old accounts, however, seem to show that 

 the chief cause of the failure of the European vines 

 in America was fungous disease. One of the very 



