56 AMERICAN VINES. 



the Mustang acquires its greatest development. On the 

 other hand, the hybrids of this species are very numerous 

 and varied, on account of its great geographical extension 

 and its long period of florescence. 



-. _.(c) Adaptation and Culture. The Mustang is the most 

 common vine in the south of the United States; it extends 

 from the Arkansas River to the centre of Mexico; it tra- 

 verses Arkansas, the Indian territory, a part of Louisiana, 

 and Texas. It grows in the same regions as the V. Berlan- 

 dieri, but over a more extended area; the variations of V. 

 Candicans are more numerous than those of the latter 

 species. They are found, like the V. Cinerea and V. Cordi- 

 folia, vigorous and in great number in the "bottom lands" and 

 on the banks' of rivers; under these conditions the trunk 

 attains a circumference of 35 inches. 



The V. Candicans, however, resists drought well; it some- 

 times grows on the sides or tops of hills amongst plants 

 living without much moisture, but then it is not vigorous, 

 although green, and the types met with under these circum- 

 stances may be considered exceptions as compared with 

 those living on the banks of rivers. The V. Candicans 

 is a species belonging to hot countries. We will refer 

 to the climate and regions it lives in, when studying the 

 V. Berlandieri. 



The alluvial river banks where the Mustang is generally 

 found are soils of the greatest fertility. But it also exists in 

 special soils, sometimes very unfertile and often very com- 

 pact; the constitution of its large roots is in correlation 

 with this fact. In France, for instance, the few types exist- 

 ing in collections grow vigorously in blue marl, or very com- 

 pact red clay, less vigorously, however, than in fresh, fertile 

 soil In the United States, near Dallas, it has an immense 

 power of vegetation in the soils called by the Americans 

 "black waxy lands " on account of their plasticity and inky- 

 black colour; these soils are very clayey, sour, little fertile, 

 and rest on a compact bank of cretaceous limestone. 



The Mustang, however, is not a vine peculiar to chalky 

 soils. It rapidly becomes yellow in the friable chalks sur- 

 rounding Cognac (France). It is true that in America some 

 types only slightly vigorous are found growing on cretaceous 

 formations, but only in cases where the black clay soil, rich 

 in humus which covers the chalky rock, is rather abundant, 

 particularly on hill-sides. An American soil where the 



