GRAPE BOTANY 309 



horticulturally at least, those in the fruit best serve to dis- 

 tinguish the group. Species of Vitis, with possibly one or two 

 exceptions, bear pulpy edible fruits ; species of Ampelopsis and 

 Cissus bear fruits with pulp so scant that the berries are in- 

 edible. Vitis is further distinguished as follows : The plants 

 are climbing or trailing, rarely shrubby, with woody stems and 

 mostly with coiling, naked-tipped tendrils. The leaves are 

 simple, palmately lobed, round-dentate or heart-shaped-den- 

 tate. The stipules are small, falling early. The flowers are 

 polygamo-dioecious (some plants with perfect flowers, others 

 staminate with at most a rudimentary ovary), five-parted. 

 The petals are separated only at the base and fall off without 

 expanding. The disk is hypogynous with five nectariferous 

 glands which are alternate with the stamens. The berry is 

 globose or ovoid, few-seeded and pulpy. The seeds are pyri- 

 form and beak-like at the base. 



SPECIES OF AMERICAN GRAPES 



The number of species of grapes in the world depends on the 

 arbitrary limits set for a species of this fruit, and knowledge of the 

 genus is yet too meager to set these limits with certainty. In- 

 deed, the men who have made grape species have seldom been 

 able to outline the habitats of their groups with much cer- 

 tainty. In habitat, it should be said, grapes are confined 

 almost wholly to temperate and subtropical regions. How- 

 ever, the grape-grower is not much concerned with species 

 of grapes other than those that have horticultural value. Of 

 these, in America, there are now ten more or less cultivated 

 either for fruit or for stocks. The following descriptions of 

 these ten species are adapted from the author's The Grapes 

 of New York, published in 1908 by the state of New York 

 (Chapter IV, pages 107-156). 



