DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY. 



The following Descriptive List of Ainerican Grapes includes all varieties which have ever received the 

 attention of Viticulturists, of which we could obtain any reliable information. Thanks to the 

 willing, kind assistance of our esteemed friends, veterans of grape culture,— especially to G. W. 

 Campbell, of Delaware, Ohio; P. J. Berckmanns, of Augusta, Georgia; T. T. Lyon, of South 

 Haven, Mich.; D. S. Marvin, of Watertown, N. Y.; Samuel Miller, of Bluffton, Mo.; Dr. J. 

 Stayman, of Leavenworth, Kansas ; Hekmann Jaeger, of Neosho. Mo. ; T. V. Munson, of Denison, 

 Texas; also to the distinguished Horticulturists and Directors of various Experiment Stations, S. 

 A. Beach, Geneva, N. Y. ; Hugh IST. Starnes, of Georgia, and many others,— we have been en- 

 abled to furnish descriptions which are probably the most complete that have ever appeared. 

 Nevertheless, we are well aware of their deficiencies, compared with the exact arapelographic 

 method of European Viticulturists. 

 The international formula for such descriptions demands — 



1. Tilt; name, synonyms, origin, home of tbe variety, and where mostly cultivated. 



2. History, literature of the variety, and its illustrations. 



3. Vine, its ,s-eneral characteristics; vigor of growth; fertility, hardiness; resistance to frost, to parasitic 



diseases, to insects; requirements of climate, soil, culture, etc. 



4. Wood, heavy or light, long or short jointed ; color of wood; character of eye or bud. 



5. Shoots, pushing early or late, smooth or hairy, color, etc. 



f>. 2-eares— foliage, its size, shape, sinuosity, (lobed), upper and lower surface (smooth, glossy, hairy, woolly). 



7. Pc/ioZe-stem of the leaf, long or short, hairy or smooth, grreen or red. 



8. Leaf-fall, early or late, change of color (to yellow or red, preceding fall), etc. 

 y. Bunch, size, shape, shouldered or not, compact or loose. 



10. Stem, peduncles, tendrils, long or short, smooth or warty, intermittent or continuous, etc. 



11. Berries, size, shape, skin, color, pulp or flesh, taste and use; for table or for wine, or both ; keeping quality. 



12. Period of Ripening, early medium, late,— and other characteristics. 



Ampelography, the description of grape-vines, is comparatively a new science, and a complete 

 description of American varieties according to this international formula is as yet impossible and 

 must be left to the future, to abler hands, to botanists. It would require large subventions, such 

 as the Governments of Europe and her rich patrons of viticulture have bestowed on Arapelo- 

 graphic Works, illustrating them with large, fine, colored Plates, which are very costly. This is 

 to be a Dictionary of American Grapes (east of the Rocky Mountains), a hand-book for our 

 grape-growers and those interested in the culture of these grapes; a record of the progress at- 

 tained, but also of many failures and disappointments experienced. We have tried to furnish the 

 best possible manual at a mere trifling cost, within reach of even the humblest grape-grower; we 

 have endeavored to present each grape in its true character and nothing more. We have mostly 

 rejected, or reduced, exaggerated illustrations for this catalogue. It is written with no desire 

 to introduce or recommend varieties, ^'new or old," unless they possess merits, established by suf- 

 ficient trial in the respective locality. We are by no means in favor of growing a great many 

 varieties in any one vineyard; there are now already many grapes which might with advantage 

 be discarded : but "there seems ever room for more;" and though further progress will doubtless 

 continue through the agency of skillful and intelligent efforts, by growth of seedlings, by crossing 

 and hybridizing, experimenters should conscientiously reject all which do not prove in some 

 respects better than any others yet known. 



Moreover, we consider all description by w^ords inadequate, and even ^'figures" seem but insufficient 

 aids. It is only by familiarizing one's self with the characteristics of the species to which 

 a variety respectively belongs that descriptions become thoroughly intelligible; knowing the dis- 

 tinct characteristics which, by community of descent, all varieties of a certain class possess, their 

 minute description according to the European formula becomes almost unnecessary. 



We have, therefore, coupled with each variety the s/jmes to which it is (or seems) most closely allied, 

 or from which it originated. First is given the standard name in FULL-FACE type; then the 

 species in italics, abbreviating them thus: {.fJst.) for ^Estivalis; (Labr.) for Labrusca; (Bip.) for 

 Riparia; (Lin.) for Lincecumii, the Post-oak grape of Texas; (Bnj).) for Rupestris; (Eotun.) for 

 Rotundifolia; (F/«.) for Vinifera; (Hi/hr.) for Hybrids or Crosses (X). stating the species of 

 both parents; in crosses between American varieties the one appearing to he the mother plant 



