JANUARY. 25 



become better known as the Los Angelos or California Mis- 

 sion grapes. Some of the earlier settlers, who, it was sup- 

 posed, knew something about the fruit, stated they were only 

 the old Spanish grapes, probably carried there after tlie inva- 

 sion of the country and its possession by the Spaniards. 

 Perhaps it is so, and that they are only old varieties, but from 

 the more recent accounts which we have of them they appear 

 to grow to a size far surpassing any that have been raised in 

 European collections, for we have no knowledge of any va- 

 riety producing such immense clusters as are reported to 

 have been grown at Los Angelos. Under the highest culture 

 of the best English grape growers no grape but the Syrian 

 has ever been raised to the great weight of fourteen pounds 

 to the bunch ; but it is no uncommon circumstance to find 

 the California grapes of that weight, even under the ordinary 

 vineyard culture. A friend writes us, under date of August 

 last, " that it produces the largest bunches he ever saw ;" ho 

 had them from one pound to fftee7i pounds " each," and 

 wishes us to name a larger one. He has the Black Morocco, 

 the Black Hamburg and others, and he thinks, " as soon as 

 the newness wears off, cultivators will select the Old Califor- 

 nia Mission grape in preference to others." 



The Northern Muscadine Grape. — This recently intro- 

 duced variety, from the Shaker settlements in New York, 

 which has been highly praised for its superior qualities, was 

 exhibited at a late meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society, who give the following not very flattering report of 

 it, through the Chairman of the Committee on Fruit : — 



" After a careful examination by the taste, &c., (the odor 

 could not be mistaken,) they were clearly of opinion that the 

 plant is a seedling of the worthless Fox grape of our woods, 

 and not deserving a place in any Catalogue as desirable for 

 culture, and no more to be compared to our Isabella or Ca- 

 tawba, than a Chicken grape to the White Muscat of Alex- 

 andria, and consider it a duty to stamp with emphatic repro- 

 bation any attempt to introduce to cultivators an article so 

 utterly destitute of value as the so-called Northern Musca- 

 dine." 



VOL. XXII. NO. I. 4 



