16 Dr. Engelmann. 



BUSHBERG CATALOGUE. 



Chissijicati'on. 



ing attracted the attention of botanists, since 

 its first pnblieation, in ITiti. 



Vahl's description is accurate enough, with the 

 exception of its native couutiy, which he gives as 

 •• Virginia,'' a negligence or ignorance which we 

 must Hot criticise too severely in botanists of a 

 CiUitury ago. The seed was originally brought to 

 Paris probably by French missionaries, who, as 

 is well known, roamed about in the Mississippi 

 Valley one and two hundred years ago. Soon 

 after the publication of Vahl's description of this 

 grape, above mentioned, Micliaux discovered this 

 interesting species "• growing abundantly on the 

 banks of tlie streams in Illinois," and named it 

 T'. litthra. He don't seem to have recognized the 

 vine which he might have seen growing under 

 liis eyes in Paris, and eventually he merged his 

 specimens of this Vitis in his herbarium under 

 1'. liiparia. 



Last fall Mr. H. Eggert, of St. Louis, re-dis- 

 covered this long neglected plant on the banks of 

 the Mississippi, opposite Alton, and collected it 

 there again this summer, when it proved to be tlie 

 latest blooming of all our species (far from bloom- 

 ing yet to-day, June 10th). There can be no 

 doubt of the indentity of this plant with Vahl's 

 T'. Piihiiata and Michaux's Bubra, nor of its entire 

 distinctness from Eiparia. It is found, with this 

 last one, covering willow thickets and other 

 bushes in low grounds, overflowed during high 

 water. Its bright red branches, from which the 

 bark separates in large flakes, conspicuous be- 

 tween the smooth but dull, darkisli foliage (much 

 •darker than Ripnria), show at once how appro- 

 priate Michaux's name is. The diaphragms are 

 thick. The leaves have a broad sinus, and are 

 shallow or often deeply three, rarely live, lobed, 

 the lobes usually draw out into long and slender 

 points; the under side is often somewhat hairy 

 along the nerves; stipules middle sized, 1>2 to 2 

 lines long; flower bunches large and loose, on 

 long stems; berries rather small (4-5 lines 

 through), black, without bloom: seeds one or 

 two, very large and plump, rounded, with very 

 short beak, notched on top, without a visible 

 raphe. 



Our plant is readily distinguished from Eiparia 

 by the thick diaphragm, the red branches, its 

 late llowering and its bloomless, late ripening 

 berries; from Cordifnlin the form of the leaves 

 and its ready growth from cuttings, easily 

 separate it. 



11. Vitis Ripakia, Michaux, the grape- 

 vine of the river banks, has lately acqnired a 

 great deal of importance, as it has now be- 

 come the principal grape-vine relied on in 

 France for the renovation of their failing 

 vinej'ards for which its vigorous growth, 

 adapted to almost all climates, its perfect 

 resistance to the insect, its easy growth from 

 cuttings, and its ready taking of grafts, seem 

 to peculiarly fit it. 



This species climbs over bushes and small 

 trees, or trails over the rocks on our river 

 banks. It is also found inland, always near 

 water, on larger trees, where its trunk may 

 become six inches tliick. The branchlets are 

 rounded, not angled; the diaphragms very 

 thin (^ to ^ line thick) ; the stipules large 

 (2-3 lines long) and very thin, and persist 



longer than in most other species ; leaves of 

 a light green, shining, glabrous or often hairy 

 beloAv, with a wide, rounded, or even truncate 

 sinus ; they are more or less tri-lobed, mar- 

 gined with large, sharp-pointed teeth. The 

 bunches are mostly small and compact ; 

 berries small (four or rarely five lines in 

 diameter), black, with a bloom, sweet and 

 juicy, scarce!}' pulp3' ; seeds (Figs. 22 to 25) 

 obtuse or slightly notched, with a narrow 

 chalaza, raphe indistinct or very thin.* 

 . It has the widest geographical distribution 

 of any of our grape-vines, and is the hardiest 

 of them all. It extends northward to Lake 

 St. Jean, ninety miles north of Quebec, and 

 to the banks of the Upper Mississippi in 

 Minnesota, and the shores of Lake Superior ; 

 in the South it is common on the banks of 

 the Ohio and in Kentuck^^ Illinois, Missouri 

 and Arkansas,! and in the Indian Territor}'. 

 I have not seen it from Louisiana or Texas, 

 but a form of it is found in the Rocky Mount- 

 ains of Colorado and New Mexico, and per- 

 haps in southern Utah. It is the earliest 

 flowering species about St. Louis, according 

 to season, between April 25th and Ma}^ loth, 

 and matures earlier than an}' other. In St. 

 Louis it used to be brought to market, before 

 we had cultivated grapes, sometimes as early 

 as July 1st, from the rocky, sun-exposed 

 banks of the river below town, and was, 

 indeed, known as the "June Grape." From 

 that time on ripe fruit is found, according to 

 locality, through August and September. It 

 is singular that our vintners, as far as I can 

 learn, have never made wine from this species, 

 nor tried to cultivate and improve it. The 



* The French now distinguish several types of Ripa- 

 ria, different somewhat in their minor cliaracteristics. 



+ A peculiar form of Riparia is a plant wliich I found 

 fifteen years ago in tlie Ijotauic garden of Berlin, under 

 the name of Vitis Solo7iis, and al)out the history of 

 which nobody seems to have known any thinjr. Lately 

 this plant has been taken up in France with that zeal 

 so characteristic to that nation, as sDnietliintr jjossilily 

 of particular interest for their viticultural pursuits. 

 It is distiiiuuished from the ordinary form by the long 

 and narrow, almost incised, crowded teeth of the scar- 

 cely three-li)l)e(l leaves. The name is undoubtedly a. 

 corruption of " Long's," and the plant comes from the 

 Upper Arkansas river, where Major Long, on his returu 

 from his expeudition to the Rocky Mountains, found, 

 as he reports, such excellent grapes. Seeds may have 

 been brought home and the plant raised as ''Longs." 

 A manuscript of the viticulturist Hronner, preserved 

 in tlie Carlsruhe library, sjjeaks of a certain grape- 

 vine as " Long's, from Arlcansas," and it is reported 

 tiiat Long's is still growing in the late Mr. Bronner's 

 garden at Wislocb, near Heidelberg, and that it is 

 indentical with Solonis. As an example of curious 

 speculative interpretation it may be stated that some 

 viticulturist liad read Solonis for Zanis (an oriental 

 grape), and Arkansas for Caucasus. 



The French edition adds to this remark of Engel- 

 mann, about tlie spe<'ious exijlanation of the name 

 ".Solonis" that the gi'ajie observed by Major Long, is, 

 no doubt, Vitis Ruiiestris and not the Vitis Solonis 

 (as explained liy M. Lespiault, in Vignes Aniericaines, 

 1881 and by IManchon in same 1884). The existence of 

 Vitis Solonis has also been discovered in the her- 

 barium of the Botanical Garden of Brussels In 1835, 

 already; (under the evidently erroneous name of 

 Isabella I). See Munson's classification, series 3, and 

 observations, page 24. 



