18 Dr. Engelmann. 



BU8HBERG CATALOGUE. 



Classification. 



to make its appearance in some localities. 'J hat 

 it was the CMnse of the complete failure in all 

 the effoits to })]iint the European vine east of ihe 

 Rocky Mountains, is now well known. 



13. ViTts Vt;LPiNA, Liur a^iis ( better known 

 as V. ROTVNPiFOLiA, Michaux), the Sovthern 

 Fox grajje, BtiUace ov EuJlit grape, or Musca- 

 dine of the Southern States, is entirely dif- 

 ferent from all our other grape-vines, and is 

 mentioned here only to complete the list of 

 our species. It is too tender for our climate, 

 and never flowers or fruits here. It is found 

 in damp thickets or on mountain slopes, some 

 times a low bush, and again climbing very 

 high, with entire, never forked, tendrils ; 

 branchlets without any diaphragm (see Fig. 

 37) ; leaves small (two, or at most, three 

 inches wide), rounded, heart-shaped, firm 

 and glossy, dark green, smooth, or rarely 

 slightly hairy beneath, with coarse and large 

 or broad and bluntish teeth. The bunches 

 are very small, of few very large berries, 

 which fall off singly, like plums. The pecu- 

 liar seed has been figured and described 

 above (page 11, Fig. 33). In the South some 

 of the varieties are highly esteemed, espec- 

 ially the White Scuppernong. 



HYBKIDITY. 



Plants, which are so intimately related among 

 themselves, are apt to hybridize, and their off- 

 spring is usually fertile, not like many hybrid 

 animals (the mule) or plants incapable to prop- 

 agate. We have a number of artificial hybrids 

 among grape-vines, whose history is well known, 

 and which bear as well as the true species, and 

 their seeds are fertile. But we also find other 

 vines in the woods or in vineyards, which, from 

 their characters, we must conclude to be spon- 

 taneous hybrids. There is, of course, a good deal 

 of experience and judgment necessary to decide 

 what may be justly claimed to be a hybrid, and 

 what only a variety within the limits of some 

 variable .>^pecies, and the opinions of different 

 persons may honestly vary on these points. But 

 whoever has studied the great variability of many 

 plants will hesitate long before he calls to his aid 

 the often fanciful help of hybridity in the ex- 

 planation of doubtful forms. Where species are 

 so well marked as e. g. Labrusca is, it is not dif- 

 ficult to recognize some of its characters in a 

 hybrid offspxdng, though the general looks of the 

 questionable plant otherwise may not conform to 

 our idea of Lahnisca at all; but in other cases, 

 where species already stand near one another, 

 the matter becomes much more ditiicult. But 

 there is another way, unfortunately a very tedious 

 one, to assist in such investigations, viz : to sow 

 the seeds of hybrids and study their offspring; 



for it is a fact that seedlings of hybrids are apt to 

 revert to, or at least to approach to. one or the 

 other of the parents. One of the most striking 

 examples of both positions here taken is furnished 

 by the well-known Taylor or Bullit grape. The 

 vigorous growth of this form, its thin diaphragms. 

 its glossy, glabrous foliage, its small clusters of 

 rather small berries entirely destitute of foxy 

 taste, all seem to point to it as a cultivated varietv 

 of Eqmria; but when we come to examine the 

 tendrils we fine that they are irregular: some- 

 times intermittent, sometimes more or less con- 

 tinuous (I have seen six in succession, which can 

 only point to Labrusca), and just so the seeds, 

 differ from Biparia seeds by their great size andl 

 their form (see page 11, Fig. 3). Now it so- 

 happens that Taylor seeds have been planted by 

 the million in Europe, in order to raise resistant 

 stock for grafting, and the general experience is 

 that one cannot find two seedlings in a hundred 

 alike, and similar to the mother-plant; some 

 approach the Biparia type, and others show the 

 Labrusca parentage distinctly. Thus, to give onlj' 

 one example, one of such seedlings — the now 

 frequently cultivated Elvira — is a Taylor seedling^ 

 with a close approach to Labrusca. 



It would further the study of our grape-vine& 

 considerably if some of those that have the zeal,, 

 the leisure and the opportunity, would institute 

 such experiments with doubtful forms. 



Pursuing this interesting subject further, I may 

 add that where nearly allied species grow near 

 together, and bloom about the same time, they 

 are more likely to hybridize than such species 

 that are separated by wide space or different 

 period of flowering. With all these considerations 

 we must not forget that with the innumerable 

 opportunities given everywhere for hybridiza- 

 tions we find comparatively so few spontaneous 

 hybrids in the vegetable world. Hybridization is 

 an abnormal, I may say, an unnatural process, 

 which is usually prevented by countless obstacles. 

 If it were not so, we would meet with more 

 hybrids in our woods and prairies than with 

 genuine species; but how i-are are they, and what 

 a find it is for a botanist to discover one ! * And 

 this is the more to be wondered at, because the 

 genital organs of the plants, though mostly united 

 in one flower, are usually so organized that self- 

 fertilization is made difficult, or is excluded, and 

 that cross-fertilization is the rule. We may put it 

 down as a law that honest nature abhor.s hybrid- 

 ization. 



*Accidental wild Hybrids are very scarce, no doubts 

 where the normal time of blooming of the species, such 

 as Riparia, ^Estivalis and Clnerea, varies too much 

 to make such crosses probable; but where you find 

 dilferent species blooming simultaneously it is quite 

 different. 



Friend Jaeger of Neosho, S. W. Missouri, tells us that 

 there are localities in the Indian Territory where 

 hybrids, between Riparia and Kupestris are more nu- 

 merous than the pure type of either species; in Red 

 river liottom, near Denison, Texas, he also found 

 RipariaXCandicans very numerous, not to mention the 

 many " Vifrnes Champin." Had Dr. Ensrelmann lived 

 a little longer it would have been easy to change his- 

 views about spontaneous hybrid grape-vines. 



