14 AMERICAK GRAPE GROWIKG 



pact, dark-blue or black, with a bloom. It is the latest 

 flowering of all the Northern species ; its range is more 

 Southern and Western than the preceding, and it reaches 

 great perfection in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and In- 

 dian Territory. Norton's Virginia and Herbemont are 

 prominent among the varieties, as will be seen at the 

 proper place, in the ^^ csstivalis class." 



3. ViTis coRDiFOLiA, Michaux ; and Yitis riparia, 

 Michaux. — Michaux described two species of the Winter 

 or Frost Grape, one as F. cordifolia (the heart-shaped 

 leaved), and the other as V. riparia (of the river banks). 

 The two were kept distinct by Torrey & Gray in the 

 " Flora of North America" (1838). In the '' Flora (fi 

 the State of New York" (1813), Doct. Torrey gives both 

 species, and says of V, riimria: ^^This species is most 

 readily distinguished from the preceding ( F. cordifolia), 

 with which it is often confounded, by its incisely serrate 

 leaves." Doct. Gray in his '^ Manual of the Botany of 

 the Northern States " (1856), unites the two under F. 

 cordifolia, Michaux, and says : ^^ Yar. riparia has the 

 leaves broader and cut-lobed." ( F. riparia, Michx). 

 Doct. Chapman in his *^ Flora of the Southern F. S." 

 (1860), follows the same arrangement as Gray. Later, 

 Doct. Engelmann in Riley's ^' Eeport on the Insects of 

 Missouri" (1874), and in the ^'Bushberg Catalogue," 

 again restores Michaux's arrangement, and gives both 

 Yitis cordifolia and F riparia. Those who are aware 

 of the acuteness he brings to the investigation of obscure 

 subjects, and the high esteem in which he is held in the 

 botanical world, will attach great importance to Doct. 

 Engelmann's views. 



According to him, besides the difference in the leaves, 

 the fruit of F cordifolia is black, without a bloom, ripens 

 late, and has a '^ strong and very fetid aromatic taste, 

 which unfits it for making into preserves, or for pressing 

 wine." In F riparia he says that the berries are usually 



