GKAPE MANUAL. 



It is interesting to know that since the times 

 of Linnaeus and of Michaux, not a single real 

 species has been added to those belonging to the 

 territory of the old United States, east of the 

 Mississippi river, though Rafinesque, LeConte 

 and perhaps others, have attempted to distinguish 

 and characterize a great many more ; while Di- 

 rector Regel, of the St. Petersburg botanic gar- 

 den, has lately attempted, rather unnaturally, 

 to contract them and unite them with old world 

 species Vitis Vinifera, resulting, according to 

 his views, from the hybridization of several of 

 these species.* 



The number of true Grape-vines (with petals 



*The Grape-vine of the Old World, Vitis Vinifera, 

 Linnaeus, finds its place in this section, between 'Vitis. 

 Riparia and Vitis ^stivalis. Though many of its cul- 

 tivated varieties bear berries as large, or even larger 

 thary those of any of our American Grape-vines, other 

 cultivated forms, and especially the true wine-grapes, 

 those from which the best wines are obtained, and also 

 the wild or naturalized ones, have fruit not larger than 

 that of the above named native species. 



This plant, together with the Wheat, belongs to those 

 earliest acquisitions of cultivation, the history of which 

 reaches beyond the most ancient written records. Not 

 only have the sepulchres of the mummies of ancient 

 Egypt preserved us its fruit (large sized berries) and 

 seed, but its seeds have even been discovered in the la- 

 custrian habitations of northern Italy. It is a mooted 

 question, where to "look for the native country of this 

 plant, and whether or not we owe the different varie- 

 ties of our present Vinifera to one or to several countries, 

 and to one or to several original wild species, which, 

 by cultivation through uncounted ages, and by acci- 

 den al and repeated hybridization, may have produced 

 the numberless forms now known, which remind us so 

 forcibly of the numerous forms of our Dog, which we 

 also cannot trace, but which can scarcely be derived 

 from a single (supposed) original wild species. Director 

 Kegel of St. Petersburg, ascribes them to the intermin- 

 gling of a few species, well known in their wild state at 

 this day; Prof.- Braun, of Berlin, suggests that they are 

 the offspring of distinct species yet found wild in many 

 parts of Southern Europe and Asia, which thus he con- 

 siders not the accidental offspring of the cultivated 

 plants, as is generally believed, but the original parent 

 stock. I may add, from my own investigations, that 

 the Grape-vine which inhabits the native forests 01 the 

 low banks of the Danube, " bottom- woods," as we 

 would call them, from Vienna down into Hungary, 

 well represents our Vitis Cordifolia and Eiparia, with 

 its stems 3, 6 and 9 inches thick, and climbing on the 

 highest trees, its smooth and shining, scarcely lobed 

 leaves and its small, black berries. On the other hand, 

 the wild grape of the thickets of the hilly countries of 

 Tuscany and Home, with its lower growth, downy 

 leaves, and larger and more palatable fruit, which 'don't 

 make a bad wine,' as an Italian botanist expresses him- 

 self, reminds us, notwithstanding the smaller size of 

 the leaves, of our Vitis ^utivalis. It was known to 

 the ancients as Labrusca, a name improperly applied 

 by science to the American species, and is called by 

 the natives to this day Brusca. The Grape-vines of 

 the countries south of the Caucasus mountains, the an- 

 cient Colchis, the reputed original home of these plants, 

 greatly resemble the Italian plant just described. 



The European Grape-vine is characterized by smooth- 

 ish, and, when young, shining, more or less deeply, 

 five or even seven lobed leaves; lobes pointed and 

 sharply toothed; seeds mostly notched at the upper 

 end; beak elongated; raphe indistinct; chalaza broad, 

 high up the seed. In some varieties the leaves and 

 branch icts are hairy and even downy when young; the 

 seeds vary considerably in thickness and length, ICBS so 

 in the shape of the raphe. 



cohering at the top and separating at the base, 

 so that the corolla falls off without expanding; 

 and with edible fruit,) in the present territory 

 of the United States, considered good species, 

 is limited to nine, which may be enumerated 

 thus: 



I. Grape-vines with loose shreddy bark, 

 climbing by the aid of branched tendrils, or, 

 (in No. 1,) without tendrils, and not climbing 

 at all. 



a Berries small, 3 6 or rarely 7 lines in diame- 

 ter, (in No. 7 larger,) seeds more or less rounded 

 on the top, with the raphe often more or less 

 prominent on the top and -back, or inconspicu- 

 ous. All the species of this group have (on 

 well grown shoots), intermittent tendrils. 



1. VITIS EUPESTRIS, Scheele. 



Bush-grape Or Sand-grape. 



2. VITIS CORDIFOLIA, Michaux. 



Winter or Frost-grape. 



3. VITIS RIP ARIA, Michaux. 



Riverside grape. 

 4.. VITIS ARIZONICA, Engelmann. 

 Arizona-grape. 



5. VITIS CALIFORNICA, Bentham. 



California-grape . 



6. VITIS ^ESTIVALIS, Michaux. 



Summer-grape. 



7. VITIS CANDICANS, Engelmann. 



Mustang-grape, of Texas. 



b Berries large, 7 9 or even 10 lines in diam- 

 eter ; raphe scarcely visible on the more or less 

 deeply notched top of the se"ed ; tendrils con- 

 tinuous. 



8. VITIS LABRUSCA, Linnaeus. 



Northern Fox Grape. 



II. Grape-vines with (on the younger branches), 

 firmly adhering bark, which only in the 

 older stems scales off ; aerial roots from in- 

 clined trunks in damp localities; tendrils in- 

 termittent, simple; berries very large, (7-10 

 lines thick,) very Su\v in a bunch, easily detach- 

 ing themselves at maturity ; seeds with 

 transverse wrinkles or shallow grooves on 

 both sides. 



9. VITIS VULPINA, Linnams. 



Southern Fox Grape, or Muscadine. 



It will be seen that the first four species are 

 more or less glabrous, the next four more or 

 less woolly or cottony; the ninth again glabrous. 

 The first six have smaller berries, the others 

 larger ones. The practically useful American 

 Grape-vines, are principally Nos. 3, 6, 8 and 9, 

 distinguished in the above list by large capitals. 



The following descriptions of these species, 

 arranged in the order of their importance to our 



