INTRODUCTORY. 9 



it is of little consequence what view is taken of these unu- 

 sual forms, as the cultivator is interested in them only as 

 varieties, and it is of no particular moment to him whether 

 we have one hundred or only one native species, so long as 

 there are a sufficient number of varieties to suit all soils 

 and locations. 



VITIS, (GRAPE.) 



Calyx very short, usually with a nearly entire border or 

 none at all, filled with a fleshy disk which bears the petals 

 and stamens: petals 5, cohering at the top (Fig. 1, A), 

 while they separate at the base, the corolla usu- 

 ally falling off without expanding : 5 thick glands 

 or lobes of the disk alternating with the sta- 

 mens, between them and the base of the ovary : 

 flowers in a compound thyrsus, dioecious-polyga- 

 mous in all the American species, exhaling a fra- 

 grance like that of Mignonette; leaves simple, rounded, and 

 heart-shaped, often variously and variably lobed. 



Vitis Labrusca* (NORTHERN Fox GRAPE.) Branchlets 

 and young leaves very woolly; leaves continuing rusty- 

 woolly beneath ; fertile panicles compact, berries large 

 (J to f of an inch in diameter). Grows in moist thickets, 

 common. Flowers in June. Berries ripe in September. 

 Dark purple or amber color, with a tough, musky pulp. 



Vitis aestivalis. (SUMMER GRAPE.) Young leaves, 

 downy, with loose, cobwebby hairs beneath; smoothish 

 when old, green above ; fertile panicles compound, long 

 and slender ; berries small (^ to i inch in diameter), 

 black, with a bloom. Thickets, common ; climbing high. 

 Flowers in May and June. Berries pleasant ; ripe in 

 October. 



Vitis COrdifOlia. (WINTER OR FROST GRAPE.) Leaves 

 thin, not shining, heart-shaped, acuminate, sharply and 

 coarsely toothed, often obscurely 3-lobed; panicles com- 



1* 



