Dr Engdmann. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Classification. 



but the two may always be distinguished by 

 the characters indicated. 



It is also the species which has most gen- 

 erally been used as one of the parents (mostly 

 the mother) in artificial hybridization, and as 

 it is the most individualized or specialized of 

 all our (perhaps of all known) Grape-vines, its 

 characters unmistakably prevail in the hy- 

 brids, and rarely leave a doubt as to where to 

 refer the questionable form ; of which I shall 

 have to add a few words below, under the 

 head of Hybrids. 



2. VITIS CANDICANS, Englemann. (F. 

 mustangensis, Buckley.) The Mustang grape 

 of Texas ; a tall climber, with rather large, 

 rounded, almost toothless leaves, white cot- 

 tony on the under side, bearing large berries, 

 which, like those of the wild Labrusca, show 

 different colors, greenish, claret and bluish- 

 black ; and which, in its native country, are 

 made into wine. In young shoots and sprouts 

 the leaves are usually deeply and elegantly 

 many-lobed, which, with the contrast of the 

 deep green upper and pure white under sur- 

 face, would make this species a most elegant 

 vine for arbors, if it could be protected from 

 severe frost. This may be done by laying it 

 down and covering it with soil. In Texas it 

 grows in the lower country, as well as on the 

 calcareous hills, and extends even into the 

 granitic region. It has also been found in 

 Florida, where many Texas plants are again 

 met with. The Florida form, at one time taken 

 for Vitis caribsea, but quite distinct from it, 

 has shorter and comparatively thicker seeds. 

 (Fig. 8.) 



3. VITIS CARIBJEA, De Candolle, is a West 

 Indian species which has lately found its 

 way, with other tropical plants, into southern 

 Florida. It has a downy, cordate leaf, not 

 lobed, but characterized by the small but very 

 sharp, distant teeth. Its black berries are small 

 and mostly bear but one or two seeds. I find 

 the Florida seeds (fig. 9) which were kindly 

 sent to me by Mr. A. H. Curtiss, the discoverer, 

 larger than those of the West Indian type. 



4. VITIS CALIFORNICA, Bentham. The 

 only wild grape of our Pacific coast ; a low 

 bush a foot or two high, in dry beds of streams 

 in southern Oregon ; it becomes a tall climber 

 in southern California, with a stem 3 inches or 

 more in ' diameter ; it is distinguished by its 

 cordate, rounded, whitish, downy leaves and 

 small black berries in large bunches ; the ob- 

 tuse but scarcely notched seeds (figs. 10 and 11), 

 without or with only a trace of a raphe, 

 and with a narrow, long chalaza. No 

 use is made of this species, but it has lately 

 oeon recommended as a grafting stock for Eu- 



ropean vines in California vineyards which 

 have bean attacked by the Phylloxera. For 

 even this Grape-vine, which is a native of a 

 country originally entirely free from the insect, 

 is as proof against it as any of our Mississippi 

 Valley vines. 



5. VITIS MONTICOLA, Buckley. Usually a 

 small bushy vine, rarely climbing over higher 

 trees ; branchlets angled ; young stems, peti- 

 oles and leaves cottony, downy, the down grad- 

 ually disappearing, remaining only here and 

 there in flocose bunches ; stipules very short 

 (J line long); leaves deeply cordate, with a 

 rounded sinus, very shortly three-lobed, edged 

 with small but broad teeth, rather wrinkled 

 on the upper surface, but the older ones very 

 smooth and often conspicuously shining below 

 (especially in the dry specimens); usually 

 small, not more than three inches across, only 

 on vigorous shoots three or four inches wide; 

 tendrils intermittent, in the smaller, bushy 

 forms, often withering away ; bunches of fruit 

 compact, short ; berries 4, or rarely 5 lines in 

 diameter ; seeds obtuse or slightly notched, 

 chalaza rather narrow, extending upward into 

 a broad groove, but without a visible raphe. 



This is one of the smaller species and is pe- 

 culiar to the hilly, cretaceous region of western 

 Texas, not extending to the lower country nor 

 to the granitic mountains ; common about San 

 Antonio, New Braunfels, Austin, etc. ; also oc- 

 casionally cultivated about San Antonio, when 

 the bunches, as well as the berries, become 

 larger. This plant has given rise to a great 

 deal of speculation and controversy. About 

 fifty years ago, the Swiss botanist, Berlandier, 

 collected it in West Texas,* but it was not till 

 twenty-five or thirty years later that Prof. 

 Buckley named and published it. Unfortun- 

 ately his description was so insufficient that 

 no botanist could recognize the plant ; only the 

 Texans of those regions, who well knew " the 

 little mountain grape," understood what he 

 meant. Buckley's mention of a middle sized 

 green, very palatable berry has misled French 

 botanists to look for this plant among the 

 numerous forms of Labrusca, and Prof. Plan- 

 chon therefore changed the name to Vitis Ber- 

 landieri. In justification of Buckley's descrip- 

 tion it is now said that there exists a form of 

 this species, especially about Fredericksburg 

 and on the borders of the Llano Estacado, with 

 somrwhat larger, green berries, which I under- 

 stand Mr. J. Meusebach is trying to find out, 



* On his specimens I found the first Phylloxera galls, 

 which, thus accidentally preserved, prove the existence 

 of the insect in America (doubted, however, by no 

 one now) long before it became known to science here 

 or in the Old World, and also prove its existence as far 

 south as Texas. 



