312 Notes and Gleanings. 



der, meaty structure unknown among our native kinds. It does not fall to juice on 

 breaking the skin ; yet tlie whole interior, except the small seeds, goes to juice 

 on the slight pressure of the tongue. Its structure is meaty ; wholly distinct 

 from, and the opposite of, fibrous. The skin of the berries is thin and strong, 

 and the bunches handsome and compact, but not compact enough to prevent 

 the fruit from maturing. 



Grapes for wine must be high flavored and rich. Neither saccharometer and 

 acidometer, nor the most minute analysis, give any account of those subtile quali- 

 ties, without which the most valuable traits of good wine cannot exist. The ex- 

 cellence of the wine must pre-exist in the grape. 



Now, if our preliminary study has been trustworthy, we can go rapidly through 

 the whole list before the public, and make a proximate estimate of the value 

 of each. 



The Catawba is the head of a family. Its juice is sweet and vinous ; and, 

 when it ripens, it is a favorite where no better kinds are known. Yet its defects 

 are apparent. Its skin is acrid, and its centre tough and unripe. From such 

 kinds as this has arisen what may called the Afnerican method of enjoying 

 grapes ; viz., sucking the agreeable part from the skin, and swallowing the tough, 

 acid, central portion while it remains sugar-coated. 



The Catawba wine has the same defects as the grapes, being deficient in rich- 

 ness and fulness, with an excess of acid. On account of its offensive aroma, it 

 ranks much lower than it otherwise would with the drinkers of fine pure Hock 

 wines. 



The Diana is a descendant of the Catawba, and superior to its parent in some 

 particulars. It ripens earlier ; the skin is free from acridity ; and, as it ripens to 

 the centre, the berries are good to eat entire. 



In young vines, and those that overbear, the peculiar odor of the grape is so 

 strong as to be offensive. Its wine is more full, rich, and generous than that 

 1. of the Catawba. 



V From the Diana comes the lona. Tlie Walter is a new grape ; my own im- 

 pression of which is, that its fruit is scarcely distinguishable from the Diana. 



I am not fully persuaded, that, in the large group of Rogers's grapes, there ex- 

 ists any foreign admixture. [We are inclined to think that Dr. Grant stands almost 

 alone in this opinion. — Ed.'] They are a great improvement upon the natives 

 from which' they sprung. Some of them under the middle period, or Isabella 

 re^^ij/ie, would have been called very good ; but not one of them can be called 

 very good when tried by our new standard of the third period, or the low foreign 

 standard of the Golden Chasselas. I gladly admit that all the vices of the Fox 

 family appear in most of them in so mitigated a form as to lead us to hope that 

 the ultimate results may be most happy. 



No. 4, for its size and earliness, is a favorable sample of that class of them 

 that has a tendency towards a meaty texture of the flesh ; and No. 1 5 comes 

 nearer to a true grape tha.i any other I have tested satisfactorily : but they will 

 not bear strict criticism, and fall below the Delaware in high points of quality. 

 / The Israella I have always placed above all the Rogers's grapes in vinous 

 spirit and ripening to the centre. Its flesh is juicy, but rather melting, and has 



