THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 135 



15. VITIS CALIFORNICA Benth.' 



I. Bentham, Bot. Sulpli. Voy., 1844:10. 2. Buckley, U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt., 1861:479, 483. 

 Calijornia grape. 3. Engclmann, Mo. Ent. Rpt., i872:t)2. 4. lb.. Bush. Cat., 1883:10, 11, 12, 

 i.(, 15. Calijornia grape. 5. Munson. .4m. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1885:137. 6. riancbon, De Candolle's 

 Mon. Htan., 5:323, 339. 1S.S7. 7. Munson, Soc. Prom. Ag. Sci. Rpt., 1887:59. Calijornia grape. 

 8. Hammond, Gar. and For., 2:39. 1SS9. Wild grape. 9. Munson, U. S. D. A. Potn. Bui., 

 3:10. 1890. 10. lb., Gar. and For., 3:474, 475- 1890. II. lb., .l/Zc/i. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1893:116. 

 12. Husmann, 1895:4, 189. 13. Bailey, Gray's Syn. Fl., 1:426. 1897. 14. Munson, Tex. Sta. 

 Bill., 56:230, 239. 1900. Xorth Calijornia grape. 15. Viala and Ravaz, Am. Vines, 1903:42, 50. 



Vine x-igorous, climbing, but shrubby if left without support; shoots cylindrical or 

 slightly angled; diaphragms of medium thickness to rather thin; tendrils intermittent, 

 bifid or trifid. Leaves with stipules medium to small; leaf broadly cordate; petiolar 

 sinus variable, usually wide and open, usually entire, sometimes sHghtly tri-lobed; teeth 

 variable in size, blunt ; smooth above and varjnng below from glabrous to much whitish 

 pubescence. Clusters small to medium, usually compact; peduncle mostly long and 

 slender. Berries small, black with rather abundant bloom. Seeds small to medium, 

 plump, slightly notched, if at all; chalaza oblong-oval; raphe slightly distinct or 

 in\isible. 



Calif omica was named and described by Bentham in 1844. It was 

 later mentioned by Newberry, Torrey and others. As these descriptions 

 were all made either from herbarium specimens or by botanists traveling 

 through the region, they are not so definite as those made later. 



The habitat of Califomica is the northern half of California along 

 streams west of the Sierra Nevada mountains and north into Rogue River 

 Valley in southern Oregon, its northern limit. 



This species is interesting in that it is a native of a region of North 

 America not originally infested with phyllo.xera, but in which phylloxera 

 has since been introduced. As might be suspected, it has little more 

 resistance to this insect than Vinifera and less than any other American 



' George Bentham was bom near Plymouth, England, in 1800. His father was a man of con- 

 siderable wealth and the son was privately educated. Early in life he showed an inclination toward 

 botany, writing a book on The Plants of tite Pyrenees and Louver Languedoc which was published 

 when he was only twenty-six years old. For a time he studied law in which he showed consider- 

 able talent and where his original views attracted some attention. Later, however, he gave his 

 attention to botany almost exclusively, joined the London Horticultural Society and the Linnaean 

 Society, and was more or less closely connected v.'ith the workers at Kew. In connection with 

 J. D. Hooker he wrote the Geiwra Plantarum. Others of his well-known works are Flora 

 Australiensis and Handbook of the British Flora. Bentham died in 1884. 



