10 THE GRAPE CULTUKIST. 



pound, large and loose; berries small (i inch broad), blue 

 or black, with, a bloom, very acerb, ripening after frost. 

 Variety, RIP ARIA; with the leaves broader and some- 

 what incisely toothed and cut-lobed. Thickets and river- 

 banks, common. May and June. Flowers very sweet- 

 scented. 



Vitis Ylllpilia. (MUSCADINE OR SOUTHERN Fox GRAPE.) 

 Leaves shining on both sides, small, rounded with a heart- 

 shaped base, very coarsely toothed with broad and bluntish 

 teeth, seldom lobed ; panicles small, densely flowered ; 

 berries large (^ to f inch in diameter), musky, purplish 

 without a bloom, ripe early in autumn. Rivers, Maryland 

 to Kentucky and southward. May. Branchlets minutely 

 warty. Fruit with a thick and tough skin. A variety 

 yields the Scuppernong Grape. 



The two thousand varieties of the grape that are now 

 or have been under cultivation in Europe, are supposed 

 to have originated from one species namely, the Vitis 

 vinifera, and it is not positively known which one of these 

 two thousand varieties is the original, although it can be 

 proved that many of them are not : it is therefore impos- 

 sible to give a description of the foreign vine so that it can 

 be recognized by one not previously acquainted with the 

 general appearance of the many varieties belonging to it. 

 Language, however skillfully applied, is often inadequate 

 to describe to others our own knowledge or impres- 

 sions. For instance, we may have a friend whom we wish 

 to describe to another so that he shall be able to know him 

 among a thousand ; but unless the one described has some 

 unusual mark to designate him, twenty may be found in 

 the thousand to answer the description exactly at least 

 to a stranger. So it is with the foreign vine ; to those 

 who have become acquainted with both it and the native 

 species, it is an easy task to distinguish one from the other, 

 no matter how much each may vary ; but to describe the 

 two so that others may learn the difference is not so readily 



