BUSHBERG CATALOGUE. 



21 



Fig. K9. JEsTivALis FOLIAGE. (Cunningham.) 



VITICULTURAL REMARKS 



ON OUR AMERICAN SPECIES, WITH LISTS OF THEIR 

 CULTIVATED VARIETIES. 



The varieties which we cultivate in this country, 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, and over in Europe, un- 

 der the name of American Grapes, all belong to either 

 one or other of the following four species : 



(I) VITIS LABRUSCA, (7) V. J^STIVALIS, 



(II) V. RIPAEIA, (12) V. RUPESTKIS, and 



(13) V. VULPINA Or ROTUNDIFOLIA, 



or are HYBRIDS (crosses between these or with Vitis 

 vinifera). 



While a study of the preceding treatise, by Dr. G. 

 Engelmann, is sufficient to enable every careful ob- 

 server.and especially the botanist, to distinguish them, 

 the following "viticultural remarks," with lists of varie- 

 ties for each species, and containing observations of 

 practical grape-culturists, may assist in that important 

 study and may prove of some value. 



V. LABRUSCA, the species of which the largest num- 

 ber of our cultivated varieties and those most exten- 

 sively cultivated in our country are the offspring, is 

 still the most limited local species, its home being con- 

 fined to the region between t the Atlantic Ocean and 

 the Alleghany Mountains. 



Dr. Engelmann desires local botanists to assist in 

 more accurately denning the geographical limits of our 

 species of Vitis ; but there is no doubt about the wild 

 Labrusca being unknown in the Mississippi Valley. 

 "Whatever has been called so there, or in Louisiana or 

 Texas, is a large and downy-leaved form of jEativalis, 

 always readily distinguished by its ' intermittent ' ten- 

 drils, while Labrusca has more or less 'continuous' ten- 

 drils." (Compare Figs. 39 and 42.) 



"For table use, this species, in its improved varieties, 

 will probably always occupy a prominent position in 

 a large portion of the Eastern and Northern States as 

 well as in the northern sections of the Western States ; 

 and in those regions where the climate will not favor 

 the maturity of the best varieties of this class, the in. 

 ferior kinds will occupy their place." 



"As a wine grape the V. Labrusca has 

 been over-estimated ; the tough, musky 

 pulp of even the best varieties requires a 

 long and favorable season of growth to re- 

 duce the acid center so as to produce a 

 proper ratio of the ingredients necessary for a pas- 

 sable quality of wine." 



Fully endorsing the above quoted views of William 

 Saunders, Superintendent of the Experimental Gardens 

 at Washington, we do not wish to be understood as ad- 

 vocating the discontinuance of planting and using La- 

 brusca grapes for wine-making ; we are well aware that 

 the Catawba and Concord still furnish the bulk of our 

 most popular wines. But for wines of finest quality 

 we recommend the JDstivalis, where its varieties suc- 

 ceed, as far superior to the Labrusca. Moreover, we 

 fecognize in this species a Northern and a Southern 

 form (same as in the Riparia and ^Estivalis), with dis- 

 tinct characteristics. 



The Northern Labrusca a plant of great vigor, hard- 

 iness and productiveness ; abundant, heavy, branching 

 and fibrous roots, thick pith, and firm liber ; with a 

 fruit of superior size, but also of a disagreeable rough- 

 ness and foxiness in taste or flavor. In some of its 

 new cultivated varieties, however, this foxiness has 

 become less marked, and is far from disagreeable. 



The Southern Labrusca a far more tender plant, 

 very sensitive to casualties from unfavorable atmos- 

 pheric changes of climate, with few and feeble roots, 

 of only moderately firm texture ; but also with a much 

 more delicate fruit of an agreeable musky flavor. The 

 first will not do well at the South-west, the second will 

 be found subject to fungoid and other diseases, and will 

 not ripen well at the North, except under the bene- 

 ficial influences of large lakes, or in some peculiar, 

 well-protected localities and favorable seasons. 



Both are subject to rot, and do not continue to 

 thrive well in. those parts of the country where both 

 types of Labrusca do not seem to feel at home.* 



* G. Onderdonk writes us ; "After all, our grapes in 

 Texas must come from the yEstivalis family. No La- 

 brusca has given us good, permanent satisfaction here." 

 This same view is obtaining ground in Arkansas and 

 south-west Missouri, after full trial and dearly-bought 

 experience. 



