20 



fertilizes as it expands, the grape was supposed beyond 

 the reach of any interference in regard to its reproduc- 

 tion. Thes'e did not p^rove to be obstacles to Mr. Rogers. 

 His account of his work is found in the Horticulturist, 

 Vol. 8, Nos. 2 and 3, pp. 86 and 119. I will not repeat 

 it here. 



At first he was laughed at *for the attempt, and our 

 most learned horticulturists and botanists declared it to 

 be an absurdity. But by the time the young hybrids 

 began to fruit, he had several believers. In 1856, the 

 vines that had grown in the original place, fruited ; the 

 rest the following year. This year he recrossed the 

 hybrids with the V. Vinifera, bringing vines bearing 

 fruit, nearly identical with the foreign kinds. The fruit 

 of No. 4 of the first lot crossed with the Muscat, has the 

 peculiar flavor of the Muscat. 



It seems very remarkable that so large a number of 

 fine grapes have appeared within the last fifteen years, 

 and particularly within the last twenty. And as shown 

 by the experiments of Mr. Haskell, and by the laws of 

 reproduction, 'as far as they are known, it seems that the 

 cultivated kindsare not simply improved seedlings, but are 

 natural hybrids. Then, too, we do not find the gradually 

 ascending scale of excellence that might be expected, if 

 they came by progression. Between the wild Labrusca 

 and the Isabella, Catawba, &c., there is a very wide differ- 

 ence. The seedlings of these kinds all tend back towards 

 the original, and are much inferior to their parents, who 

 have been elated by a favorable alliance. Again, the hy- 

 brids of Mr. Rogers' raising, resemble the "improved 

 seedlings." No. 15 is frequently compared with the Ca- 

 tawba. Now all the attempts to cross the "improved 

 seedlings" has resulted in producing grapes, so near the 

 foreign kinds, as to be nearly or entirely worthless for 



