Dr. Engelmann. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Classification. 17 



often resemble a Lindenleaf, with a rounded 

 but usually rather narrow sinus ; by the large ; 

 loose inflorescence, which opens its flowers 

 rather later than any other of our species ; by 

 the small black berries, about four lines in 

 diameter, without a bloom, of a pleasantly 

 acid taste, until frost sweetens them, and by 

 the small, plump seed with a short beak. 



This species is found in rich soil in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley from Central Illinois to Louisi- 

 ana and Texas, especially in bottom lands and 

 along the banks of lakes, in situations where 

 we scarcely ever meet with JRstivalis. It is 

 quite abundant in such localities near St. 

 Louis. 



9. VITIS CORDIFOLIA, Michaux. This is 

 the tallest of our climbers at home in our deep 

 bottom woods, but often also a low trailer over 

 bushes and hedges, well known as the Win- 

 ter, or Frost grape, flowering late and matur- 

 ing late its strongly flavored, shining black 

 berries. 



The plant is glabrous, or the branchlets and 

 lower surface of leaves somewhat hairy ; 

 branchlets indistinctly angular (in this re- 

 spect intermediate between the last two 

 species) ; diaphragm at the nodes of the 

 brandies thick, rarely, at the lower nodes, 

 wanting ; leaves rather large, three to four 

 inches wide, or more, not lobed at all, or slight- 

 ly three-lobed, cordate, with a deep narrow, or 

 wider, but always sharp sinus, margined with 

 conspicuous, rather large sharp-pointed teeth ; 

 stipules short ; flowers in large, usually loose 

 clusters, blooming rather late ; berries small 

 (three to four lines through), black and shin- 

 ing, with a peculiarly disagreable and strong 

 flavor ; edible only after frost ; seed, with slight 

 or strong raphe. 



A common plant from the Middle States 

 southward to Texas ; not known, I believe, in 

 northern New York or New England, but not 

 rare in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and 

 found also near the city of New York ; very 

 common in the deep soil of the western river 

 valleys, where it takes its fullest development. 

 There the trunk sometimes reaches thirty to 

 thirty-eight inches in circumference (southern 

 Missouri, along the Iron Mountain Railroad) ; 

 whether the trunk found by Mr. Ravenel at 

 Darien, Georgia, measuring forty-four inches 

 around, belongs to this species, I cannot tell, 

 but his supposition that it was ^Estivalis is 

 quite improbable ; the statement of newspa- 

 pers that a Grape-vine in Gulf Hammock, in 

 Florida, had a circumference of sixty-nine 

 inches, is considered a " fish story " by Florida 

 botanists. 



The acute, mostly narrow sinus of the leaves, 



the small stipules, the broad diaphragms, the 

 character of the seeds, the circumstance that it 

 don't grow from cuttings, and the late flower- 

 ing time, abundantly distinguish this species 

 from Vitis riparia, with which it has been 

 thrown together so long and so obstinately. 



10. VITIS PALMATA, Vahl, has been culti- 

 vated in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for 

 perhaps one hundred years or more, and has 

 thence found its way into other European 

 gardens, without, however, as it seems, having 

 attracted the attention of botanists, since its 

 first publication, in 1794. 



Vahl's description is accurate enough, with 

 the exception of its native country, which he 

 gives as "Virginia," a negligence or igno- 

 rance which we must not criticise too severely 

 in botanists of a century ago. The seed was 

 originally brought to Paris probably by French 

 missionaries, who, as is well known, roamed 

 about in the Mississippi Valley one and two. 

 hundred years ago. Soon after the publica- 

 tion of Vahl's description of this grape, above 

 mentioned, Michaux discovered this interest- 

 ing species " growing abundantly on the banks 

 of the streams in Illinois," and named it V. 

 rubra. He don't seem to have recognized the 

 vine which he might have seen growing under 

 his eyes in Paris, and eventually he merged 

 his specimens of this Vitis in his herbarium 

 under V. riparia. 



Last fall Mr. H. Eggert, of St. Louis, re-dis_ 

 covered this long neglected plant on the banks 

 of the Mississippi, opposite Alton, and collected 

 it there again this summer, when it proved to 

 be the latest blooming of all our species (far 

 from blooming yet to-day, June 10th). There 

 can be no doubt of the identity of this plant 

 with Vahl's V. palmata and Michaux's JRubra* 

 nor of its entire distinctness from Riparia. It 

 is found, with this last one, covering willow 

 thickets and other bushes in low grounds, 

 overflowed during high water. Its bright 

 red branches, from which the bark sepa- 

 rates in large flakes, conspicuous between the 

 smooth but dull, darkish foliage (much darker 

 than Riparia~), show at once how appropriate 

 Michaux's name is. The diaphragms are 

 thick. The leaves have a broad sinus, and 

 are shallow or often deeply three, rarely five, 

 lobed, the lobes usually drawn out into long 

 and slender points; the under side is often 

 somewhat hairy along the nerves ; stipules 

 middle sized, \\ to 2 lines long ; flower bunches 

 large and loose, on long stems ; berries rather 

 small (4-5 lines through), black, without 

 bloom; seeds one or two, very large and 

 plump, rounded, with very short beak, 

 notched on top, without a visible raphe. 



