Dr. EiKjelitumn. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Classijication. 15 



favorable localities. Their leaves are thinuer 

 than those of our type, and woolly only in 

 the first 3^outh ; the bunches are larger, more 

 shouldered; the berries, ihough small, are 

 much sweeter and more juicy. They com- 

 prise among others the Cunningham, with 

 less divided, and the Herhemont and the 

 Lenoir with deepl}' lobed leaves, the two 

 former with lighter colored, the latter with 

 deep black berries. Unfortunately no wild 

 plant from wliich these varieties might have 

 sprung is yet known, but must be looked for 

 in the mountains or hills of the Carolinas and 

 Georgia, and only ichen found in a wild state 

 ca)i we correctly judge of their botaniccd status. 

 About their viticultural relations, the body of 

 this work has to be consulted. 1 will onl}' 

 state here that a slight suspicion exists of 

 their being hybrids between V. yEstivcdis and 

 some form of Vinifera.* Though the seeds 

 are entirely those of the former, and also the 

 resistance to Phjdloxera. The variet}' Lenoir., 

 often named Jaquez. and in Texas Black 

 Spanish, has been introduced by millions into 

 southern France, and is there found to fur- 

 nish not only an excellent stock whereon to 

 graft their own vines, but also to make a 

 superior wine directly, and one very rich in 

 the deep coloring matter so highly prized 

 there, t 



8. ViTis CiNEREA, Engelmann, closely al- 

 lied to u^stivcdis, with which I had formerly 

 united it as a variety, of pretty much the same 

 size, rarely taller. It is distinguished by its 

 whiteish or grayish pubescence, which, espe- 

 ciall}' on the branchlets, is quite persistent, 

 even into winter ; by the angular branchlets, 

 the hair being especially developed on the 

 angles ; the cordate often entire, or slightly 

 three-lobed, more or less gray-downy leaves, 

 which often resemble a Lindenleaf, with a 

 rounded but usually rather narrow sinus ; by 

 the large, loose inflorescence, which opens its 

 flowers rather later than any other of our 

 species ; by the small black berries, about 

 four lines in diameter, without a bloom, oi a 

 pleasantly acid taste, until frost sweetens 

 them, and by the small, plump seed with a 

 short beak. 



This species is found in rich soil in the 

 Mississippi Valley from Central Illinois to 



* See Murison's classification later on, p. 20, under his 

 series 5, V. Jiourquiniana. 



t In Solano County. California, a Mr. Wolfslvill graft- 

 ed European vines in his vineyard (1878) on tlie stock or 

 cuttings of a vine supposed to be tlio Lenoir, but ascer- 

 tained since to have been obtained i)y Mr. Wolfskill 

 from Alai:)ama under the name of " Coon-grape," a wild 

 Aestivalis variety. It has a leaf much like the Lenoir 

 but bears a small, compact bunch of sweet l)lack ber- 

 ries. These grafts are bearing regularly wliile Vini- 

 fera vines arourfd have long since been destroyed by 

 the Phylloxera. This may be of interest: perhaps, the 

 "Coon-grape " of Alabama is the long-looked for wild 

 plant from which the Lenoir (Jaccjuez, Black Spanish) 

 originated? 



Louisiana and Texas, especially in bottom 

 lands and along the Ijanks of lakes, in situa- 

 tions where we scarcely ever met with 

 ^stivalis. It is quite abundant in such 

 localities near St. Louis. 



9. ViTis CoKDiFOLiA, Michaux. This is 

 the tallest of our climbers at home in our 

 deep bottom woods, but often also a low 

 trailer over bushes and hedges, well known 

 as the Winter, or Frost grape, flowering late 

 and maturing late its strongly flavored, shin- 

 ing black berries. 



The plant is glabrous, or the branchlets 

 and lower surface of leaves somewhat hairy ; 

 branchlets indistinctly angular (in this re- 

 spect intermediate between the last two 

 species) ; diaphragm at the nodes of the 

 branches thick, rarely, at the lower nodes, 

 wanting; leaves rather large, three to four 

 inches wide, or more, not lobed at ail, or 

 slightly three-lobed, cordate, with a deep 

 narrow, or wider, but alwaj's sharp sinus, 

 margined with conspicuous, rather large 

 sharp-pointed teeth ; stipules short ; flowers 

 in large, usually loose clusters, blooming 

 rather late ; berries small (three or four lines 

 through), black and shining, with a peculiarly 

 disagreeable and strong flavor ; edible only 

 after frost ; seed, with slight or strong raphe. 



A common plant from the Middle States 

 southward to Texas ; not known, I beleive, 

 in northern New York or New P^ngland, but 

 not rare in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 and found also near the city of New York ; 

 very common in the deep soil of the western 

 river vallej's, where it takes its fullest de- 

 velopemeut. There the trunk sometimes 

 reaches thirty to thirth-eight inches in cir- 

 cumference (southern Missouri, along the 

 Iron Mountain Railroad) ; whether the trunk 

 found by Mr. Ravenel at Darien, Georgia, 

 measuring forty-four inches around, belongs 

 to this species, I cannot tell, but his supposi- 

 tion that it was j^stivcdis is quite improbable ; 

 the statement of newspapers that a grape- 

 vine in Gulf Hammock, in Florida, had a 

 circumference of sixty-nine inches, is con- 

 sidered a " fish story " by Florida botanists. 



The acute, mostly narrow sinus of the 

 leaves, the small stipules, the broad dia 

 phragms, the character of the seeds, the 

 circumstance that it don't grow from cut- 

 tings, and the late flowering time, abundantlj^ 

 distinguish this species from Vitis Riparia., 

 with which it has been thrown together so 

 long and so obstinately. 



10. ViTis Palmata, Vahl, has been culti- 

 vated in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for 

 perhaps one hundred years or more, and has 

 thence found its way into other European 

 gardens, without, however, as it seems, hav- 



