102 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



ously, deeply and irregularly toothed and sometimes cut, the 

 teeth and the long point prominently acute: fertile flowers 

 bearing reclining or curved stamens, and the sterile ones 

 long and erect or ascending stamens: clusters medium to 

 large on short peduncles, branched (often very compound), 

 the flowers sweet-scented: berries small (less than %-inch 

 in diameter), purple-black with a heavy blue bloom, sour 

 and usually austere, generally ripening late (even after frost) ; 

 seeds rather small and distinctly pyriform. New Brunswick 

 to N. Dakota, Kansas, and Colorado, and south to W. Virginia, 

 Missouri, and N. W. Texas; the commonest grape in the north- 

 ern states west of New England, particularly along streams. 

 Commonly known as Fitis riparia. Variable in the flavor 

 and maturity of the fruit. Forms with petioles and under 

 surfaces of leaves pubescent sometimes occur. Occasionally 

 hybridizes with V. Labrusca eastward, the hybrid being known 

 by the tomentose young shoots and unfolding leaves, and the 

 darker foliage which is marked with rusty tomentum along 

 the veins of the less jagged leaves. Parent, either direct or 

 crossed, of Clinton, Elvira, Pearl, and others. 



Far. prcecox, Bailey, is the June grape of Missouri, the 

 little sweet fruits ripening in July. 



In a note attached to his specimens (now at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, Paris), Michaux speaks of this as being the species 

 known to the French voyageurs upon the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi: " Fitis riparia. Vigne des battures par les francais qui 

 voyagent sur 1'Ohio & le Misissipi, parce que cette espece 

 eroit sur les rochers et les sables inondes annuellement, par 

 les debordements. Le raisin en est le meilleur de tous ceux 

 qui se trouvent, dans 1'Amerique septentrionale. L'on ne 

 trouve nullement cette espece a Test des Monts Alleganies, 

 Ohio & Misissipi. Le raisin est meur en Aoust et croit sur les 

 Isles & sur les Rochers qui bordent les Rivierres Shavanon 

 ou Cumberland, Cheroquis ou Tenassee, ainsi que sur les 

 Rives de Green River, dans 1'Etat de Kentucky. II est plus 

 difficile de trouver du Raisin sur les Isles ou plages sablon- 

 neuses du Misissippi et de 1'Ohio parce qu elles sont trop 

 longtemps submergees." 



There is a curious confusion respecting the name of this 



