SPORTS 



199 



ordinary wild grapes. In this, however, he was mistaken. 

 The grapes on the new vine were very superior in size, 

 color, texture, and taste to those borne on the parent vine. 

 They became famous rapidly. The new grape appeared 

 in 1849. Only four years later, in the records of the 

 Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, this state- 

 ment occurs : " E. W. 

 Bull exhibited his new 

 seedling grape, which, 

 under the name of Con- 

 cord, is now so generally 

 cultivated throughout 

 the country." 



146. " Sports. " The 

 Concord lias made the 

 name of Ephraim Bull 

 famous. But Mr. 

 Bull was not a plant 

 breeder. He did not 

 experiment, wisely or 

 unwisely. Nor did he 

 deserve any special 

 credit for planting wild- 

 grape seeds in his garden. 

 Many of his neighbors 

 had done that, and so 

 have thousands of other people before and since, and the 

 vines that grew up have been merely the fox grape. 



By a happy chance (so far as man's part goes) the seed 

 in Mr. Bull's garden produced a "sport." A "sport" 

 among plants is a plant which, purely from natural causes, 

 departs widely from the parent type. Sports occur also 

 in the animal world, and perhaps even more in the human 



NIAGARA GRAPES. 

 A cross of the Concord and the Cassady. 



