Description of all the Valuable Varieties of HARDY VINES, including a Brief 

 Account of many that are of no value for cultivation, but are noticed because 

 they have been recommended above their merits. 



Description of Varieties. 



Our hai'dy vines may, with few exceptions, be included in six prin- 

 cipal groups : 



IsADBLLi Group. 



Isabella, Massachusetts White, 



York Madeira, Northern Jluscadine, 



Alexander, Charter Oak, 



Creveling, Sage, 



liOgan, Catharine, 



Concord, Perkins, 



Hartford Prolific, 

 Adirondac, 



Dracut Amber, 

 Blood's Black. 



Seedlinqs trov Isabella. 

 Israella, Garrigues, 



Union Village, Arkansas, 



Manhattan, Louise, 



Hyde's Kliia, Rebecca. 



Catawba, 



Catawba Group. 



Bland's Virginia. 



Sbbdlingb from Catawba. 

 Diana, Kilvington, 



Annaj Cassady, 



Wilmingtcn, Raabe, 



Mammoth Catawba, Mottled Catawba, 



To Kalon, Coleman's White, 



Southern Group. 

 Herbemont, Elsingburg, 



Lincoln, Norton's Virginia, 



Lenoir, Alvey, 



Pauline, Long. 



■^he Ballace, sometimes called " Southern Fox," and also " Vitis Ro- 

 tuadifolia," with its principal variety, the Scuppernong, are not includ- 

 ed in the descriptions. All of these varieties are too tender except for 

 Southern climate, and none of them have proved to be valuable for 

 »uy purpose even there. 



Minor or Venango may represent a transition class between North- 

 •ra and Southern fox grapes. 



Another intermediate class may be designated as the Virginia Mount- 

 »!n grapes, including both black and white varieties, of which Taylor 

 or Bullitt may represent the white, and one disseminated by Mr. Raabe 

 nnder the name of Emily, the Black. 



Clinton and Marion 

 Are representatives of the same class at the North, including White 

 Clinton. 



tlR. Raabb's Seedlings, (so called.) 



Clara, Brinckle. 



Three which do not adhit of Classification. 



Delaware, lona, 



Allen's Hybrid. 



In the following descriptions of our native grapes will be found a 

 full and accurate account of the characteristics and properties which 

 constitute the value and importance of all that are worthy of atten- 

 tion by cultivators. 



t shall not give botanical descriptions further than Is required to 



designate the habit of the Tines, and in a few instances the form and 

 character of the leaves, where it may be necessary to distinguish va- 

 rieties, but shall aim to state clearly and intelligibly, with a sufficient 

 degree of minuteness, all that pertains to the quality of the fruit, and 

 the habit, growth, hardiness, and productiveness of all of the kinds 

 concerning which cultivators and purchasers may desire to be inform- 

 ed; so that any attentive reader can not fail to form a correct judg- 

 ment upon which lie may act with confidence and safety in the pur- 

 chase of wines. 



The list of varieties which are worthy of the attention of amateurs 

 does not comprise more than twenty, and twelve of them will very 

 nearly afford the full enjoyment of the grape in all of its good kinds. 

 Those who will cultivate eight of the best varieties in sufficient 

 number to produce grapes for abundant use, will not lose very much 

 enjoyment by being deprived of all of the others. A very full descrip- 

 tive account will be found, at the conclusion, of two new kinds, lona 

 and Israella, which have been added to the list this season; and it is 

 not claiming undue importance for them in the scale of merit, to say 

 that their acquisition doubles the value of our list of grapes for the 

 table — or rather, for family use. They furnish, in the first place, the 

 two varieties which possess the qualities most needed in their fruit ; 

 and the abundance and certainty with which their fruit is produced 

 in full perfection, in the most unfavorable seasons, is a qualification so 

 important, that its value can not be easily estimated. 



While it is conceded that the chief interest of our horticultural exhi- 

 bitions the past season has been supplied by the unexampled show of 

 hardy grapes, let us consider how much, or rather, how little of that 

 interest was sustained by the Isabella and Catawba, which twelve 

 years since were of so much more importance than all of the other 

 kinds together, that no other kinds received or deserved much con- 

 sideration. 



If those had been altogether absent from our best exhibitions thl» 

 season, scarcely a grain of loss would have been felt ; and this entire 

 change has occurred, not more in consequence of the surpassing qual- 

 ity of the new kinds, than of their unfailing constancy of produc- 

 tion^ while our old favorites just named have been generally mor« 

 than half a failure in quantity, besides being very inferior in their 

 own deficient quality. 



The two new ones are of the highest quality, either fresh or dried to 

 raisins, and are not only early in their time of ripening, but excellent 

 keepers ; one being the earliest of the good kinds, and the other the 

 best keeper among grapes. Those which have recently become our 

 best kinds, especially Delaware, Diana, Anna, and Allen's Hybrid, are 

 not made less valuable by the accession of these two, but the grape is 

 made by them a much more important fruit, and must now take rank 

 above the apple in importance, as well as in excellence, without a 

 dissenting voice, although the apple has heretofore been justly entitled 

 to the highest consideration. 



Our varieties for all seasons and uses, and for all cultivated tastes, 

 have become sufficiently numerous and diversified without including 

 any that are not of unexceptionable quality, as will appear in the 

 course of the descriptions. But still the number is not so great as to 

 bewilder the attention, and no confusion will result if the names are 

 not arranged in catalogical order, by which the natural groups wouI(L 

 be separated, making much repetition necessary in the description*. 



