702 



AMPELIDE.E. IV. Virts. 



pruinose, with a thick skin, and firm, sweet, savoury pulp. 

 There are varieties of this with white and green berries. Or- 

 leans, Seidentraube, p. 151. 39 Africana ; leaves 5-lobed, to- 

 mentose beneath ; bunches large, flaccid ; berries very long, 

 blue, covered with a grey bloom ; skin thick ; pulp rather acid. 

 Marokkaner, p. 151. 40 Damascena ; leaves 3-lobed, pubes- 

 cent beneath ; bunches large, branched, flaccid ; berries large, 

 blue, covered with grey bloom, with a thick skin, and sweet, 

 savoury pulp at maturity. There are varieties of this with 

 cream-coloured and white berries. Damascenertraube, Zibebe, 

 p. 151. 41 Alexandrlna; leaves 5-lobed, smoothish; bunches 

 large, flaccid, branched ; berries unequal, greenish-yellow, co- 

 vered with white bloom ; skin thin ; pulp very savoury and 

 aromatic. Zibeben-Muskateller, p. 152. 



Propagation. The vine is propagated from seeds, layers, cut- 

 tings, grafting, and budding. By seeds for the sake of obtaining 

 new varieties, by layers to obtain strong shewy plants the first 

 year ; by cuttings for economy in management, and to get plants 

 with tops proportioned to their roots ; and by grafting and bud- 

 ding for various useful and curious purposes. 



By seed. Select seed from the finest and best ripened berries, 

 of approved sorts, if the object be to propagate an esteemed 

 variety, or to procure a subvariety of an esteemed sort. But if 

 the object be to procure an entirely new variety, the first object 

 is to bring two or more sorts close together when in flower, so 

 as that the pollen may effect a promiscuous impregnation, or by 

 cutting out with small scissors the stamens from the flowers in- 

 tended for the female parent before the anthers burst, and in- 

 troducing the pollen of the variety intended for the male parent 

 by dusting the stigma with the ripe anthers. This last is the 

 most certain and effectual method, because the pollen of the 

 stranger plant, operating alone, must have more influence on the 

 progeny than when operating in conjunction with that of the 

 blossoms to be crossed. The object of this should be to obtain a 

 superior variety in every particular, therefore particular attention 

 should be paid both to the kind impregnated and to the kind im- 

 pregnating. Were the Red Frontignac and White Sweet-mater 

 wedded together, their union would probably produce a very 

 valuable sort, as there would be a good chance of the berries being 

 both large and delicate. Grapes for seed should be permitted 

 to remain on the plant until they are perfectly mature, and until 

 the seeds become of a dark brown. The seeds should be separ- 

 ated from the pulp and preserved till February or March. They 

 should then be sown in pots filled with light earth, plunged in 

 a moderate hot-bed, and the plants will come up in about a 

 month ; and when the plants are about 6 inches high, they should 

 be planted singly into 48-sized pots, and shifted into larger pots 

 from time to time as they grow. Water gently as circumstances 

 require, give plenty of light and air, and in the following autumn 

 cut the plants down to within two buds of the ground, and suffer 

 only one of these to extend itself in the spring. They will pro- 

 duce fruit in 4 or 5 years, when the approved sorts should 

 be selected and the others destroyed, or be kept for stocks to 

 graft or inarch good sorts upon. Forsyth and some other 

 authors recommend planting seedling vines the second year of 

 their growth against a wall in the open air. Where there is 

 abundance of walling to spare and no great haste requisite to 

 prove the fruit, this is a good mode, as the fruit is sure of grow- 

 ing larger, and give a better opportunity of judging of their 

 merits ; but keeping the plants under glass in pots is the most 

 eligible method, as the plants will produce fruit much sooner, 

 and of better flavour. It would not, however, be prudent to 

 plant out seedlings in a vinery in their untried state. The fruit 

 of seedlings is not even always such as would be advisable to 

 introduce into a vineyard ; for although it may not have the 

 sweetness, flavour, bulk, or precocity desired in an eating grape, 



it may be of that insipid large-berried kind, which is fit only 

 to make the most inferior wines. In most vine countries, a 

 small black berry, with an austere taste and aromatic flavour, 

 and in a close bunch like that of our black cluster, is preferred 

 to all others. It may be observed that vines raised from the 

 seeds of black-berried kinds do not produce always black berries, 

 nor the white-berried white berries. 



By layers. The advantage of layers is generally stated to 

 be that of procuring large plants, that come immediately into 

 bearing. A deep incision is made at a joint, or a ring of bark 

 is taken off, and the shoot pegged down and covered with earth. 

 However, vine plants raised from layers are supposed to be 

 shorter lived and far inferior to those raised from cuttings. 



By cuttings. The advantage of propagating by cuttings is eco- 

 nomy in labour. There are three kinds of cuttings used : 1 Long 

 cuttings, from a foot to a foot. and a half in length, consisting of 

 new or young wood, with a joint or two of that of the preceding 

 year. This is the sort recommended by Miller, adopted in form- 

 ing vineyards on the Continent, and formerly used in this country 

 for planting walls and vineries. They are inserted in the earth 

 so as only to leave two eyes above ground, with the earth firmly 

 pressed round them, they are mulched, and water is supplied 

 regularly in dry weather. They strike freely in this way, 

 either with or without bottom heat. In France they will even 

 produce bunches of grapes the first year. 2 Short cuttings are 

 formed with only one eye on the young wood, and 2 inches of that 

 of the preceding year attached, plant in pots, one cutting in each, 

 at first in 48-sized pots, and as soon as these pots are full of 

 roots shift them into 32-sized pots. 3 Single-eyed cuttings ; 

 for this last method ripened wood should always be chosen at 

 the pruning season, and preserve the shoot till wanted in spring 

 by covering their lower ends with earth. The upper part of the 

 cutting should be cut in a sloping direction with a sharp knife 

 about a quarter of an inch above the eye, and cut about 3 inches 

 below the eye horizontally, or they may be cut horizontally or 

 slopingly at both ends at equal distances from the bud. Plant 

 in pots, and bury the whole cutting in the soil, with the eye 

 uppermost ; apply bottom heat as in propagating short cuttings. 



By grafting. The advantages of this mode of propagation 

 is when a wall or vinery is planted with inferior sorts of vines, the 

 nature of the vines may be changed without loss of time and 

 without expence ; or in small vineries where it would be incon- 

 venient to have a number of sorts from different roots, they may 

 be procured by grafting different kinds on one and the same 

 plant. But the most important advantage, Speedily considers, 

 is by grafting the weak and delicate growing vines, as the Blue 

 Frontignac upon robust and vigorous kinds, as the Syrian. 

 The Syrian, raised from seed, is greatly preferable to all others 

 for stocks. If the seedlings degenerate to a kind of wildness, so 

 much the greater will he the vigour of the plants and the higher 

 the flavour of the sorts grafted on them. At the pruning season 

 select cuttings for grafts, preferring the bottom part of the last 

 year's shoots, preserve them by inserting three parts of their length 

 in pots filled with earth till wanted. The season for grafting in 

 stoves is the beginning of January, in the open air the beginning 

 of March. On small stocks, not more than an inch in diameter, 

 cleft-grafting will be found the most proper, but upon larger 

 stocks whip-grafting is to be preferred. Vine grafts do not 

 take so freely as those of most other fruits ; the operation must 

 be performed with the greatest care. But the most eligible 

 manner of grafting vines is that by approach, in which case 

 either the stock or scion must be growing in a pot. Strong 

 plants, 2 years potted, are to be preferred for the open air, 

 but for a vinery or hot-house, plants from the nursery may be 

 potted or shifted and inarched the same season. Here the clay 

 and bandage should remain 2 or 3 months after the grafts have 



