172 Mac i lie. 



BUSHBERG CATALOGUE. 



Micketts' Hybrids. 



Racine. {^Est.) Of similar oriffiu as Neosho, and at 

 firs supposed to he tlie same -rrape, but afterwai'ds 

 recognized as distinct. We cannot admiic citlier of 

 these two varieties. Tliey ai-e Ixuli licnitliy and liardy, 

 and have a beautiful duraljle foliane wliii'li'inalves tliem 

 desiral)le for arl)ors. but we find neitlierof tliem very 

 productive oi- desirable in quality. Its wine lias a 

 medicinal taste and Havor: the small berries are pulpy 

 and full of seeds. T.liey may be better in quality and 

 suflficiently productive in some more Southern localities. 



Ragman. (Line. X ^Est.) See Munson's Seedlings, p. 159. 



Randall. {Jlybi: t ) A chance seedling:, originated in 

 Randall's garden, at Bayonne, N. J., more than twenty 

 years ago, and now only "introduced l)j' Peter Henderson 

 & Co., New York, who furnish the following descrip- 

 tion: Vine has long-jointed, pretty hard wood: bunches 

 large, often shouldered: berries \evy large, red or 

 MAROON color; skin tliick, little pulp, sweet, and has the 

 aroma of white wine: ripens a little befoie the Con- 

 cord. Is subject to mildew. 



Raritan. {Labr. X yEst.) Ricketts' Delaware Seed- 

 ling No. 1. A cross of Concord and Delaware. Plant 

 moderately vigorous, hai-dy, short-jointed; bunch medi- 

 um, sliouldered, nearly the same form as Delaware; 

 berry small medium, round, black; leaves of medium 

 size, lobed, veined or corrugated; flesh juicy and vinous; 

 ripens about the time of Delaware, and commences to 

 shrivel as soon as ripe. Its originator, J. H. Rlckett-, 

 of Newburg, N. Y., claims that this is a superior wine- 

 grape, its must coming up to 110° on Oechsle's scale in 

 1881, and l^i mille by Twichell's acidometer. lu 1871 

 Ricketts reported to the Am. Pomol. Society, 105" sac- 

 charometer, 9>^ acid; "of course, too much acid." 



The vine does not grow vigorously on its own roots, 

 and, according to Ricketts' experience, it grows best 

 when grafted on the Clinton; but, according to our 

 experience, the invigorating effect of the stock is not of 

 many summers' duration unless care is taken to pre- 

 vent the graft from making its own roots. 



Ray's Yietoria. {Labr.) See Victoria. 



Rebecca. {Labr.) An accidental seedling, 

 found (1856^ in the garden of E. M. Peake, of 

 Hudson, ]Sr. Y. It is a very fine white grape, 

 but unfortunately veiy tender in winter and 

 subject to mildew in summer, of weak growth, 

 deficient foliage. On south walls, in well pro- 

 tected situations, with dry soil and good cultiu'e, 

 it succeeds very well, and produces most delicious 

 white grapes, ripening almost as early nsBelaivare. 



Bunches medium, compact, not shouldered; 

 berries medium, obovate; skin thin, pale gkeen, 

 tinged with yellow or pale amber color at full 

 maturity, covered with a thin white bloom, con- 

 siderably translucent. Flesh tender, juicy, free 

 from pulp, sweet with a peculiar uiiusky and 

 luscious aroma distinct from any other grape; 

 seeds small ; leaves of scarcely medium size, very 

 deeply lobed, and sharply serrated. Suited to 

 Amateur culture, but, when tried on a large scale, 

 in ordinary vinej^ard culture, as a hardj^ profitable 



frape, great disappointment followed and pro- 

 uced a decline in grape-growing. 



Red £lben. (yExt.) See Rulander, page 175. 



Red I.enoir. (yEst.) See Pauline, page 168. 



Red >Iiinoy. (Labr.) See Catawba, page 99. 



Red Kiver. ijEst.) See Cynthiana, page Ml. 



Reiiiecke. (Labr.) A seedling of Woodruff, q. v. 



Reliance. (^st.-Hijbr.) Parentage unknown. Prob- 

 ably a cross between Delawai-e and lona. Kxliibited in 

 fall of 1881 by J. Burrows, Fishkill, N. Y. Resembles 

 Delaware in size and color. 



Rentz. (Labr.) A Cincinnati seedling, produced by 

 the late Sebastian Rentz, a most successfull vintner. 

 Claimed to be equal, if not superior, to Ives. A large, 

 rather coarse Ijlack grape, very vigorous and healthy 

 in vine and foliage, free from mildew, and very pro- 

 ductive. Bunch large, compact, often shouldered; berry 

 large, round, black; flesh rather pulpy and musky, 

 with abundant sweet juice. Ripens earlier than Ives 

 Seedling, but is not good enough to be re(;ommend- 

 ed. Berries drop from stem when ripe. Valuable as a 

 stock foi- grafting. Roots thick, with a smooth, firm 

 liber, readily pushing young rootlets, of strong resist- 

 ance to Phylloxera; canes thi<;k, l)ut not very long, nor 

 rambling. 



Requa. {Labr.-IIybr.) Rogers' No. 28. A tine 

 table grape. The late M. P. Wilder, who had a 

 better opportunity than most men to form an 

 accurate opinion of the merits of these hybrids, 

 described it in the Grape Culturitit as follows: 



•'Vine tolerably vigorous and quite productive: 

 bimch large, shouldered ; berri/ medium size, 

 roundish; skin thin; tlesh tender and sweet with 

 a trace of the native flavor ; color bronzy-gkeex. 

 assuming a dull brown red at maturity ; season 

 middle of September. A grape of fine qualit\-. 

 but subject to rot in unfavorable seasons, ripening^ 

 too late for the North." 



Ricketts' Hybrids. Our Index contains a list 

 of the very remarkable seedlings raised by J. H. 

 Ricketts, at Newburg. X. Y., as far as named and 

 disseminated by him. By his long-continued, 

 carefully and skillfully conducted labors he has- 

 produced the most wonderful collection of hjbrid 

 grapes, many as yet unnamed and designated onh* 

 by numbers. The American Pomological Society 

 repeatedly awarded him its '' Wilder Silver 

 Medal;" and hundreds of premiums from Hor- 

 ticultural Societies all over the country have been 

 awarded to Mr. Ricketts for his seedling grapes. 



There is no question about the beauty or the 

 excellence of many of these grapes, and, though 

 some have proved entire failures with us and 

 others, especially in the Mississippi Valley, the 

 very fact that he exhibited every year his mag- 

 nificent specimens is evidence that they can be 

 grown in great perfection. His location may be 

 specially favorable, but there must be other places- 

 equally so, where the same care and attention will 

 produce the same splendid results. His vines are 

 not pampered nor covered with glas.^, as some 

 suppose, but merely laid down without covering 

 for winter, pruned long and cultivated with but 

 ordinary care. We hoped, therefore, that some 

 of these excellent varieties will become valuable 

 acquisitions to our finest and most useful grapes, 

 especially those which have the Concord for the 

 pistillate parent, as Lauy Washington, El 

 Dorado, Jefferson, and those w^hich are crosses 

 on the Clinton, as the Bacchus and Empirk 

 State. 



Geo. W. Campbell, in his treatise on "Grapes, 

 New and Old," delivered before the W. New York 

 Horticultural Society in January, 1894, justlj' re- 

 marked : "'It is greatly to be regretted that ex- 

 tended trial has failed to sustain the high promise 

 of Ricketts grapes in ptiblic estimation, and few. 

 if any of them, appear now to be regarded as 

 having great or permanent value. It is not be- 

 cause of lacking in high character; nor because 

 they cannot be successfully grown, for Mr. Rick- 

 etts was. by his wonderful exhibits, constantly 

 demonstrating that it nnild be done. It may be 

 that oiu- grape-growers are not yet educated up to 

 the point of giving the necessary care and atten- 

 tion to produce the same splendid results; or. 

 perhaps, because they ))e]ieved it would not pay. 

 It may also be tiiat there is wanting in the grape.s 

 themselves some element of hardiness requisite 

 to adapt them to general culture." 



Rie»«enblatt. (yEst.) Syn., Giant-leaf. A chance 

 seedling of some .TCstivalis grape that grew on M. 

 Poeschel's vineyard at Hermann, Mo. The vine is 

 hardy, liealtliy and productive; a strong grower, with 

 a truly gigantic leaf. A small (juantity of wine made 

 from its grapes by Poeschel & Sherer has a Madeira 

 character njsembling Hermann; color dark brown. 



This variety lias not been disseminated, and conse- 

 quently has not been extensively tried outside of Her- 

 mann, Mo. 



