204 NOMENCLATURE OF GRAPES. 



and Frontignac grapes ; but as an American native variety, 

 I have no doubt it will on cultivation be deemed a most valua- 

 ble grape, and the probability is, that it will make good wine. 

 The original vine grows on a barren old field, surrounded by 

 three trees, the effect of which must be to starve the plant and 

 fruit. Its natural position therefore is not an advantageous 

 one. If such be its character in a locality, where it is evident- 

 ly stinted in its aliment, surely its merits may be enhanced by 

 transplanting it to a better situation. The fruit on the original 

 vine ripens about the middle of September, but cultivation 

 might probably hasten its developement and maturity. 



A letter very recently received from Mr. P. contains the 

 following additional remarks, which are highly interesting : 



" In the perusal of a proof sheet of your Treatise just re- 

 ceived, I was forcibly struck with an observation you make 

 in your description of the Bland grape, where to prove its 

 native origin, you state that identically the same grape has 

 been received from Carolina under the name of Red Scupper- 

 nong, and that several native vines received from different 

 parts of our country greatly resemble it in foliage, wood, and 

 manner of growth, &c. Now the " foliage, wood, and man- 

 ner of growth" of the Beaverdam grape are precisely like the 

 Bland, only that I cannot speak certainly of the appearance 

 in putting out in the spring, not having had my attention 

 drawn to their great similarity soon enough to determine the 

 resemblance in that point. I did not heretofore have full faith 

 that the Bland grape was a native ; but I am now fully satisfied, 

 and I entertain little doubt but that the Beaverdam is a variety 

 of the same family. There is another strong point of resem- 

 blance ; the bunches of the Beaverdam are, it is true, larger 

 and longer, but in other respects they are exceedingly alike ; 

 the berries on the Bland are, we know, generally scattering, 

 not from any deficiency of bloom, but from an inaptitude per- 

 haps to set themselves, so that the result is, there are many 

 stems on the bunches without fruit. This peculiarity appears 

 also to apply to the Beaverdam. I should therefore think it 



