AND WINE MAKING. 15 



larger than in the last, mostly with a bloom, ripens much 

 earlier, and is much pleasanter. While no cultivated 

 varieties of V. cordifolia are known, V. riparia gives 

 several, the best known of which is Clinton. In a strict 

 botanical classification it might be necessary to keep 

 these two species distinct, but in a viticultural arrange- 

 ment, where the cordifolia class has become established 

 by usage, it seems hardly worth while to insist upon call- 

 ing it the "riparia class." As the V. cordifolia, as un- 

 derstood by Engelmann, affords no cultivated varieties, 

 no confusion is likely to result from the use of the term 

 cordifolia, to designate that class of grapes of which the 

 Clinton and Taylor are best known, and which the Elvira 

 promises to bring into greater prominence than it has 

 heretofore enjoyed. The remaining species : 



4. VITIS VULPINA, Linnaeus ("the foxy"), has been 

 called F. rotundifolia (the "round-leaved") by some 

 later authors. It is not found north of Maryland, and 

 extends into Florida. It rambles to a great distance, has 

 a close, smooth bark like a beech tree, heart-shaped 

 leaves, shining on both surfaces ; the berries, one-half to 

 three-fourths inch in diameter, are very few in a cluster, 

 dropping as soon as ripe, bluish-black (with light-col- 

 ored varieties), with a very thick and leathery skin and 

 a strong and peculiar flavor. This is the parent of the 

 much talked of Scuppernong, Mish, and others. It is 

 called Bullace, and also Muscadine. 



The important hybrids are mentioned under the class 

 to which the native parent belongs. The term hybrid is 

 properly used only where the variety results from the 

 union of two other varieties from distinct species ; the* 

 Catawba and Clinton, or the Concord and Black Prince, 

 by their union, would in each case produce a hybrid ; an 

 Ives fertilized by the pollen of Martha, would produce, 

 not a true hybrid, but merely a cross, as both varieties 

 belong to the same species, the Labrusca. 



