NOMENCLATURE OF GRAPHS, 169 



Some persons have claimed both this and the Isabella as 

 foreign varieties ; hereafter perhaps we shall hear of foreigners 

 claiming our lakes and our mountains, which they might do 

 with quite as much justice. 



It is a dioecious species, and in order to obtain crops it is 

 necessary to have vines of both sexes; from inattention to 

 pursuing this course, many persons have failed in obtaining 

 fruit, and have therefore asserted 'that their vines were barren 

 without taking sufficient pains to examine into the cause. 



I have received from a Virginian correspondent, the follow- 

 ing descriptive remarks concerning a vine in his possession, 

 and as they evidently refer to this variety, I give them here : 



" The wood is smooth and remarkably hard, rarely exhibit- 

 ing that shaggy appearance of the bark usual with most other 

 vines ; the bark of the old wood is of a light iron colour, 

 that of the young wood is of a brighter hue, marked with 

 small specks of grayish white ; the leaf is finely indented or 

 serrated, and highly glazed both above and below ; it is 

 tough and durable, remaining attached to the stem until the 

 hardest frosts. The berry is of a greenish white colour, the 

 skin of a satin like texture, varied by minute chocolate 

 coloured dots. It is pulpy, but easily dissolves in the mouth, 

 and is of a honey-like sweetness and musky flavour and scent. 

 The berries are congregated in bunches of from two to six 

 each, the weight of the largest being eighty grains and the 

 smallest forty grains. The vine is a great grower and abun- 

 dant bearer ; its flowers have no odour ; and it ripens its fruit 

 here (Virginia) the last week in September. The fruit differs 

 from the Black Scuppernong only in respect to colour." 



