A Few Words about Grapes. 347 



plant of fine habit, freely producing large white and rosy-purple flowers, 

 the stamens being beautifully shaded with blue and purple. The blossoms 

 are less fugitive than those of many species, remaining in perfection sev- 

 eral days. We recommend this sjDecies for every greenhouse. 



The following passion-flowers are the best and most showy for hot- 

 house culture : Passiflora alata cxndea, kcrmisiana, princeps, Lernichcziana, 

 Loudoni, Buonapartea, Baraquiniana, and quadrangidaris ; Tacsonias Icevis, 

 vianicata, Buchanani, sanguinea, and modissima. 



Glen Ridge, November, 1S67. -^- '-^' -^-i jUll. 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT GRAPES. 



The season just closing has been, in New England and in many other 

 localities, very unfavorable for the grape-crop. The spring was cold and 

 backward, a dash of winter being perceptible in the air until nearly June. 

 The vines pushed their buds about May 25, — some ten days later than 

 usual ; but, as the growth was then very rapid, the time of blossoming was 

 retarded only a day or two. Up to the middle of July, the promise of a 

 large crop was excellent, and the growth perfectly healthy and unusually 

 vigorous. The third quarter of July, which is, on the average, the warmest 

 of the year, was, this season, the coldest week of the summer. A severe 

 north-east storm commenced on the 19th, and lasted several days, deposit- 

 ing over four inches of rain, at a temperature of about fifty-eight degrees, 

 on the heated soil. The effects of this cold rain were apparent in the 

 almost immediate appearance of disease in vines growing in light soils and 

 in exposed situations. Vines on the leeward side of buildings, the roots of 

 which the rain, driven obliquely by the wind, did not reach, were unaffect- 

 ed ; also those growing in day soils. The question thus arises, whether, in 

 localities where cold rains are not unusual in midsummer, a heavy soil is 

 not better for the vine than light sands or porous gravel. The causes of 

 rot are quite obvious. It no doubt proceeds from a chill communicated to 

 the roots at a season when growth is rapid. A sandy soil is the quicker ; 

 it becomes earlier fit for working, and absorbs heat more readily than a clay: 



