THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD. 93 



As I have said before, our cultivated grapes are 

 derived from several native species found growing 

 wild, and some now valued highly for wine-making 

 are nothing but wild grapes domesticated ; as, for 

 instance, Norton's Virginia, belonging to the czsti- 

 valis class. The original plant of this variety was 

 found growing upon an island in the Potomac by 

 Dr. Norton, of Virginia. 



The species from which the greatest number of 

 well-known .grapes is obtained is the Vitis labrusca, 

 the common wild or fox grape, found growing in 

 woods and thickets, usually where the ground is 

 moist, from Canada to the Gulf. The dark purple 

 berries, averaging about three quarters of an inch 

 in diameter, ripen in September, and they contain 

 a tough, musky pulp. Yet this " slip of wilderness " 

 is the parent of the refined Catawba, the delicious 

 Brighton, and the magnificent white grape Lady 

 Washington, indeed, of all the black, red, and 

 white grapes with which most people are familiar. 

 Our earliest grapes, which ripen in August, as well 

 as some of the latest, like the Isabella, come from 

 the labrusca species. It is said that the labrusca 

 class will not thrive in the extreme South ; and with 

 the exception of the high mountain slopes, this 

 appears reasonable to the student of the vine. It 

 is said that but few of this class will endure the 

 long hot summers of France. But there are great 



