Dr. Engelmann. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Classification. 11 



rupestris and V. vulpina are never lobed. 

 Only the leaves of flower-bearing canes ought 

 to be considered as the normal ones. 



The surface of the leaves is glossy and shin- 

 ing, and mostly bright green, or in rupestris 

 pale green ; or it is dull above and more or less 

 glaucous below. The glossy leaves are per- 

 fectly glabrous, or they often bear, especially 

 on the nerves of the lower side, a pubescence 

 of short hair. The dull leaves are cottony or 

 cobwebby, downy on both or only on the under 

 side, and this down usually extends to the 

 young branches and to the peduncles, but, as 

 has been stated above, often disappears later 

 in the season. 



On both sides of the insertion of the petiole 

 or leafstalk into the branchlet, we find on very 

 young, just developing shoots, small acces- 

 sory organs, which soon disappear ; they are 

 the stipules. In most species they are thin, 

 membranaceous, rounded, at the top somewhat 

 oblique, smooth in some, downy or woolly in 

 other species. They are most conspicuous and 

 elongated in Vi/is riparia, in which I find 

 them 2J-3 lines long; in V. rupestris they are 

 lJ-2 lines in length; in V. eandicans and Cal- 

 ifornica scarcely shorter, in V. labrusca 1J-2 

 lines long ; in V. ces'tivalis, cordifolia, and most 

 others, they are only one line long or less ; in 

 very vigorous young shoots they may some- 

 times be larger, just as their leaves are also 

 larger than the normal. 



Not much of a distinctive character can be 

 made out of the flowers. It is observed, how- 

 ever, that in some forms the stamens are not 

 longer than the pistil, and very soon bend 

 .under it, while in other forms they are much 

 longer than the pistil, and remain straight till 

 they fall off. It is possible that those with 

 short stamens are less fertile than the others.* 



The time of flowering is quite characteristic 

 of our native species, and it seems that the 

 cultivated varieties retain herein the qualities 

 of their native ancestors. The different forms 

 of Riparia flower first of all ; soon afterwards 

 comes -Rupestris, next Labrusca and its rela- 

 tives, and later JEstivalis comes iL bloom. 

 One of the last flowering species is Cordifolia, 

 and still later, Cinerea. Vinifera seems to 

 flower soon after Labrusca, but it is not culti- 

 vated here, nor is Vulpina, which is probably 

 the latest of all. V. eandicans apparently 

 blooms about the same time that Labrusca 

 does. 



Riparia begins to open its flowers about St. 

 Louis three to five weeks earlier than the first 

 blossoms of ^Estiva Us are seen in the same 



* Compare note on page 9. 



locality. In favorable situations and in early 

 seasons they make their appearance in this 

 vicinity as early as April 25th, at other seasons 

 sometimes as late as May 15th, or even 20tb, 

 on the average about May 10th, and generally 

 about the time when the Acacias (Black Lo- 

 custs) bloom, both filling the atmosphere with 

 the sweetest prefumes. Cordifolia, and, after 

 this, Cinerea, on the contrary, bloom from the 

 last days in May to (in late seasons) the mid- 

 dle of June, when that weed among trees, the 

 fetid Ailantus (misnamed the tree of Heaven), 

 exhales its nauseous odors and the beautiful 

 Catalpa expands its gorgeous bunches of flow- 

 ers. V. palmata (Vahl), of which we do not 

 yet know much, seems to be the latest flower- 

 ing Grape-vine with us, flowering even after 

 Cinerea. Thus we are not likely to have any 

 Grape-vines in flower here before April 25th 

 or after June 20th. 



One of the botanical characters of the Grape- 

 vine is found in the seeds. The bunches may 

 be larger or smaller, looser or more compact, 

 branched (shouldered) or more simple, condi- 

 tions which, to a great extent, depend on vari- 

 ety, soil and exposure ; the berries may be 

 larger or smaller, of different color and consist- 

 ency, and contain fewer or more seeds (never 

 more than four), but the seeds, though to some 

 extent variable, especially on account of their 

 number* and mutual pressure, where more 

 than one is present, exhibit some reliable dif- 

 ferences. The big top of the seed is convex or 

 rounded, or it is more or less deeply notched. 

 The thin lower end of the seed, the beak, is 

 short and abrupt, or it is more or less elon- 

 gated, On the inner (ventral) side are two 

 shallow, longitudinal irregular depressions. 

 Between them is a ridge, slight where there 

 are one or two seeds, or sharper where the 

 seeds are in threes or fours ; along this ridge 

 the raphe (.the attached funiculus or cord) runs 

 from the hilum, at the beak, over the top of 

 the seed, and ends on its back in an elongated, 

 oval or circular well-marked spot, called by 

 botanists chalaza. This raphe is on that ridge 

 represented by a slender thread, which on the 

 top and back of the seed is entirely indistinct, 

 or scarcely perceptible, or it is more or less 

 prominent, like a thread or a cord. In our 

 American species these characters seem pretty 

 reliable, but in the varieties of the Old World 

 Grape-vine ( Vinifera), several thousands of 

 years removed from their native sources, the 

 form of the seed has also undergone important 



*A single seed is always thicker, plumper, more 

 rounded; two seeds are flattened on the inner, rounded 

 on the outer side; three or four seeds are more slender 

 and angular; these different variations may often be 

 found in berries of the same bunch. 



