by Bcntham, and that all I needed was .to 

 procure seeds from the best specimens to be 

 found. I am now convinced of an error, for 

 I am quite sure that the varieties of our 

 wild vines are quite numerous, though to 

 the casual observer they all appear alike. 



I succeeded in engaging Mr. C. Mattier, 

 an intelligent Frenchman, who lives a her- 

 mit's life in the valley adjacent to Harbins 

 Springs, to collect seeds for me. I found 

 that he had already commenced to experi- 

 ment with the wild vine as I had recom- 

 mended. 



On the 7th of April, 1879, he had scat- 

 tered broadcast in his vegetable garden an 

 oyster-can full of the seeds of the wild vine 

 which he had saved. He had expected only 

 a few to germinate ; but thousands soon ap- 

 peared above ground, most of which he de- 

 stroyed in cultivating his garden. On the 

 2d of June he transplanted a few, as he 

 would have done with tomato plants. These 

 he took care of and watered. In the month 

 of October, at my request, he dug up two of 

 these seedlings, less than seven months old 

 from the seed, and sent them to me, to- 

 gether with branches of an old wild vine of 

 the same kind, which were loaded with fruit. 

 One of the seedlings, together with aver- 

 age samples of the wild fruit, I photographed 

 to preserve for the use which I make of them 

 now. They are figures 2 and 3 on the ac- 

 companying plate. The seedling had devel- 

 oped a perfect system of roots, the longest 

 being three feet and a half to the point where 

 broken off in the deep soil. The wood of the 

 stem just above the sc il was three-eighths of 

 an inch in diameter and the growth three feet 

 high. Subsequently I had a collection of the 

 seedlings, which had not been cultivated and 

 had had no advantage of water, sent to me. 

 Most of them were too small to graft, though 

 some were quite well developed. It is prob- 

 able that if the seeds had been sown earlier 

 and well cultivated in favorable ground, a 

 large percentage would have produced vigor- 

 ous plants. Nothing [could have been more 

 satisfactory than Mr. Mattier's experiment, 

 as far as it shows the vigor of these seedlings. 

 Figure 2 in the accompanying plate repre- 

 sents the seedling photographed a little less 

 than one half the natural size. 



Mr. Mattier says that he had used the wild 

 grapes to mix with the Mission and other 

 cultivated varieties to produce claret wines, 

 and that he had discovered remarkable vinous 

 qualities in them similar to those of the best 

 Bordeaux grapes. He found certain bunches 

 among the vines growing near Harbin's 

 Springs, which had accidentally developed in 

 size and character to such a degree of perfec- 

 tion that he had conceived the idea of im- 

 proving them by cultivation, not for grafting 



stock, but for producing fruit for wine mak- 

 ing. One bunch he had found measured 

 eight inches in length, the berries being large 

 and well matured. But of this feature I 

 shall write further on when noticing the value 

 of this vine on its own merits, independently 

 of its value for grafting stock. 



He collected for me three hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds of seeds including the 

 dried skins. The method, according to my 

 directions, was to select matured bunches, to 

 crush the berries, without injuring the seeds, 

 to press out the juice carefully by hand so as 

 to prevent fermentation and to dry the re- 

 mainder in a shady place. ' 



He also conducted experiments in making 

 wine from portions of the grapes, which first 

 demonstrated that there were several varie- 

 ties of these wild grapes. 



There were noticeable different colors in 

 these grapes when picked, but this had gen- 

 erally been attributed to different degrees of 

 maturity. I have, however, sampled three 

 different wines made from these grapes, 

 which vary so much in general characteristics 

 that I am convinced that they are the pro- 

 ducts of distinct varieties. One was of a 

 light reddish brown color, another port like, 

 another violet purple. The last had such an 

 abundance of coloring matter that a small 

 addition of it to a glass of white wine was 

 sufficient to impart a brilliant claret color. 

 When I submitted it to Mr. Arpad Haraszthy 

 for his opinion he pronounced it, without 

 hesitation, a fine claret wine, and remarked, 

 " They will plant that vine yet in Bordeaux 

 by the million!" 



Mr. Mattier thinks he can distinguish five 

 distinct varieties among the vines in his 

 vicinity. 



The seeds which I have, upon examina- 

 tion, disclose marked, distinctive peculiari- 

 ties, notwithstanding a common type prevails 

 among them. Some are grayish colored, 

 same bright reddish, others dull coffee brown, 

 with varying shades between these. The 

 dark seeds, coming from the dark grapes, 

 predominate. Some are also, no doubt, 

 immature and worthless. 



HOW TO USE THE SEEDS. 



For the purpose of producing seedlings for 

 grafting stock, I presume that there can be 

 no material difference in the value of these 

 seeds. All of them are from a district un- 

 contarninated by a possible hybridization, 

 excepting such as may have happened natur- 

 ally among the wild vines in the state of 

 nature. The vines from which they were 

 gathered exhibit remarkable fecundity as 

 well as luxuriance of growth. Some cover 

 trees from fifty to seventy-five feet high, 

 and produce at least one hundred and fifty 



