26o THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



slight foxiness in flavor, it is considered very good, improving with age and 

 being well adapted for blending with more highly flavored wines. 



At the beginning of the reconstruction period in France, Elvira was 

 used more or less as a resistant stock and somewhat as a direct producer 

 but within a few years it was condemned and abandoned for either purpose 

 and is now known in France '■ only in varietal vineyards. 



Elvira is a seedling of Taylor, a Riparia-Labrusca hybrid, and shows 

 well the peculiarities and general characters of the group of which Taylor is 

 supposed to be the parent. Of the niimerous hybrid Riparia grapes, Elvira 

 seems to have given the best coign of vantage for breeding work and is the 

 parent of a number of worthy pure-bred and cross-bred varieties. While 

 it is to the species to which Elvira belongs that we must look for our hardiest 

 grapes, this variety and most of its progeny are not suited to northern 

 conditions, not because of tenderness to cold, but because they must have a 

 long season for maturity and to attain their best quality. Riparia is largely 

 used as a resistant stock in combating phylloxera, and Elvira and other 

 similar hybrid offspring are almost proof against this pest. 



Elvira was originated by Jacob Rommel of Morrison, Missouri, from 

 seed of Taylor which some say was pollinated by Martha. It was planted 

 in 1863 and fruited for the first time in 1869. Bush & Son & Meissner 

 introduced the variety in 1874. It was placed on the grape list of the 

 American Pomological Society fruit catalog in 1881 where it is still retained. 

 Its great popularity in Missouri was largely due to the energy with which 

 it was advertised by certain prominent viticulturists, they having been 

 most favorably impressed with it because of its withstanding the severe 

 cold of the winter of 1873 without protection. Husmann, in particular, 

 spoke of Elvira in the highest terms and recommended its cultivation. 

 Its popularity spread from Missouri to the islands and the Ohio shore of 

 Lake Erie but scarcely reached New York. In all of these regions its 

 culture is now on the wane. 



Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, produces very heavy crops, more productive than 

 Concord. Canes of average length, numerous, medium to below in thickness, rather 

 dark brown, deepening in color at the enlarged and flattened nodes; intemodes short 



' TraM gen. dc vit., 6:192. 1903. 



