FRUITS. 265 



and twigs, apparently without blossoming, though there is a 

 minute flower concealed within the fruit. 



The varieties are almost innumerable, and most of them 

 delicious when grown under favorable circumstances. They 

 are also healthful, and unlike the orange, are a substantial 

 food. In other countries, among such people as subsist on 

 light, meagre diet, they materially contribute to the suste- 

 nance of the inhabitants. They are a gentle laxative, and 

 are frequently used as a mild emollient. 



Their production is this country has been limited almost 

 entirely to their use while fresh. We lack the long-contin- 

 ued, hot, dry weather necessary to cure them in the open 

 air. It is not improbable, that artificial means may tfe used 

 for preparing them for profitable export to those sections of 

 the country where they are not raised. In this view, they 

 may be deemed an important addition to the exports of our 

 most southern territory, at some future day. 



THE G-RAPE. 



The details for the proper rearing of this fruit demand a 

 volume, but I can only refer to some prominent points in its 

 cultivation. It grows wild and in abundance in many parts 

 of the United States, and of tolerable quality, climbing over 

 trees, rocks and fences in great luxuriance. I have seen 

 in the eastern States, a dozen excellent native varieties of 

 white, black and purple, of different sizes, shapes and flavor, 

 growing within the space of a single furlong. So abundant 

 were the clustering vines on the Atlantic coast in the vicinity 

 of Narraganset Bay, that the old Northmen who discovered, 

 and for a short time occupied the country in the 12th century, 

 gave it the appropriate name of Vinland or the Land of 

 Vines. The choicer kinds require loose, marly soils, with 

 warm, sunny exposures and proper trimming. Thus culti- 

 vated, they are often raised with profit. The more choice 

 and delicate kinds of the imported varieties, must have pro- 

 tection in winter and glass heat in summer, and are therefore 

 only suited to a well-arranged conservatory. 



Varieties.^- The best American kinds are the Isabella and 

 Catawba for the middle, and the Scuppernong for the south- 

 ern States. North of latitude 41 30, neither of the two 

 former ripen certainly, except in long and warm seasons ; 

 and it is better for the cultivator within this range, to select 

 some of the hardiest and best wild grapes of his own lati- 

 tude, for out door propagation. Grafting a foreign variety 

 12 



