vrna labrus< \ 11 7 



ami lobes acute, the upper Burface dull green and beooi 

 glabrous, but tin- lower Burface densely covered with a 

 tawny white, dun -colored or red-brown tomentnm: stamens 



long ami erect in the sterile (lowers and (in wild fon 

 short and recurved in the fertile ones: raceme short (berries 

 usually less than 20 in wild types), generally simple or very 

 nearly s<>, aboul the Length of the peduncle when in dower: 

 berries large and nearly spherical, ranging from purple- 

 black 'the common color) to red-brown ami amber-green, 

 rally falling from the pedicel when ripe, variable in 

 • ste but mostly sweetish musky ami sometimes Blightly 

 astringent, the skin thick ami tough; Beeds very large ami 

 thick. — New England ami southwards in the Alleghany re- 

 gion and highlands to West -central Georgia. Not known to 

 occur west of K. New York in the North, except at the 

 southern end of Lake Michigan [E. •/. Hill), and in B. Indi- 

 ana, by Bfunson. The parent of the greater pari of 



American cultivated grapes. It is often confounded with 



I . cBStwalia in the South, from which it i< distinguished by 

 the habitually continuous tendrils, tin' more felt-like leaves 

 which iif- not noccose, ami especially by the small-toothed 



leaves, Very short clusters and large berries ami seeds. VitiS 



Labnuea is the parent stem of the greater part of American 

 grap - well represented in Catawba, <'«>n d and 



Wbrden. In its wild state it is very variable in si/.e, color 

 and quality of fruit, and in Bize of cluster. Its berries tend 

 to fall from the stem, and the M shelling" of grapes in vine- 

 yards may he a lingering of this ancestral trait. See Mun- 

 ■on, in Amer. < lard., x i i . 580. 



.1 im rican Orapi ZAU raturt 



The best illustration of tin- bigh pari which the 

 grape has played in the industrial development of the 

 country, is afforded bj ;i survej of the voluminous 

 literature of the subject. Probabl) qo lesa than ;i 

 hundred books, counting the various editions, have 

 been published in this country on the grape. The 



