No. 133.] 355 



Mr. Dye : in the vineyard of General Vallejo, at Sonora, the 

 vine is now about nine years old. The vines are pruned down tc^ 

 about two and a half feet high from the ground. The cluster 

 of grapes on them arc very large. The best of them lie upon the 

 ground. Some weighed ten and eleven ppunds each. 



Mr. Shelton : It is but three months since I was in that vine- 

 yard, and I got one cluster of grapes weighing teji pounds and 

 another of eleven pounds. The berries are very tender, and ea- 

 sily crushed. It is necessary to wrap up each cluster in papery 

 and transport them very carefully. 



Dr. Underbill thinks that the same wonderful effect of soil and 

 climate displayed in so many vegetables appear in the grape, and 

 ^that if they were brought here and planted, they would diminish 

 to the standard of our own fruits and plants. 



Mr. Shelton : The best clusters lie and ripen upon the ground. 



Dr. Underbill : Is gold dust found in the good soils of Califor- 

 nia. 



Messrs. Dye and Shelton : None whatever. 



Dr. Church : What is the soil ? 



Mr. Shelton: It varies much in complexion, some of it being 

 very dark. There is a sample of it as dark as slate, I exhibit 

 to the Club my Flora of California, in drawings and herbarium ; 

 seeds also. Tlie famous Burr Cloverseed. (Members examined 

 them, and felt surprised that such well-drawn and colored plants 

 and flowers should have been executed in California.) Mr. Shel- 

 ton said he had seen one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight 

 of potatoes dug from five stalks of potatoes. I am availing iny- 

 self of the aid of Professor Torrey, of this city, in the chssifica- 

 tion, &c., of my plants. 



Mr. Dye : The soils of California are very various, I have 

 examined as many as twelve varieties of clover, and I suppose 

 that there are twenty there. I have seen in the length of one 

 hundred and twenty miles' ride, Eurr Clover and wild oats' seed 

 lying on the surface of large tracts ot land, from one to two inches 



