VITIS LABRUSCA 117 



and lobes acute, the upper surface dull green and becoming 

 glabrous, but the lower surface densely covered with a 

 tawny white, dun-colored or red-brown tomentum: stamens 

 long and erect in the sterile flowers and (in wild forms) 

 short and recurved in the fertile ones: raceme short (berries 

 usually less than 20 in wild types), generally simple or very 

 nearly so, about the length of the peduncle when in flower : 

 berries large and nearly spherical, ranging from purple - 

 black (the common color) to red-brown and amber-green, 

 generally falling from the pedicel when ripe, variable in 

 taste but mostly sweetish musky and sometimes slightly 

 astringent, the skin thick and tough; seeds very large and 

 thick. New England and southwards in the Alleghany re- 

 gion and highlands to West -central Georgia. Not known to 

 occur west of E. New York in the North, except at the 

 southern end of Lake Michigan (E. J. Hill), and in S. Indi- 

 ana, by Munson. The parent of the greater part of 

 American cultivated grapes. It is often confounded with 

 V. (esticalis in the South, from which it is distinguished by 

 the habitually continuous tendrils, the more felt -like leaves 

 which are not floccose, and especially by the small -toothed 

 leaves, very short clusters and large berries and seeds. Vitis 

 Labrusca is the parent stem of the greater part of American 

 grapes. It is well represented in Catawba, Concord and 

 Worden. In its wild state it is very variable in size, color 

 and quality of fruit, and in size of cluster. Its berries tend 

 to fall from the stem, and the "shelling'' of grapes in vine- 

 yards may be a lingering of this ancestral trait. See Mun- 

 son, in Amer. Gard., xii. 580. 



American Grape Literature 



The best illustration of the high part which the 

 grape has played in the industrial development of the 

 country, is afforded by a survey of the voluminous 

 literature of the subject. Probably no less than a 

 hundred books, counting the various editions, have 

 been published in this country on the grape. The 



