265 



ROUSSANNE (syn. White Burgundy in Australia). On the 

 Rhone it is blended with Marsaune for Chablis ; vine very vigorous. 

 Pruned short. Leaves large, lobed, somewhat downy. Bunches 

 medium size, cylindrical, shouldered. Berries medium size, some- 

 what close, globular, golden-yellow when i*ipe. (2nd period). 



VERDELHO (syn. Gouveio, Madeira in Australia). An oval- 

 shaped white grape, whi^-h makes an excellent white sweet wine 

 of the Madeira type. Season : mid-season. Merits : produces a 

 high-class wine, but the plant is very subject to o'idium. Vine : 

 growth moderately vigorous ; shoots slender, rather close- jointed, 

 of a reddish colour with dark streaks ; leaves medium, almost 

 entire, upper side da.rk- green, smooth, and rather shiny, under 

 surface slightly downy ; teeth even, short and blunt. Fruit : 

 bunches medium to small, long in shape and conical ; berries small 

 to medium, not very closely set in the bunch, oval, sometimes with- 

 out seeds : skin thin, yellow-green, does not burst readily in wet 

 weather. 



Cultured Notes. Prune long. Vine very subject to oi'dium, 

 and for that reason should not be planted in a moist district. 

 Another good variety is the Sercial grape; a round, white berry, 

 which makes a high-class Madeira wine. 



PHYLLOXERA-RESISTANT VINES. 



These vines, which grow wild in America, offered until recent 

 years but a casual botanical interest. The unintentional introduc- 

 tion of the Phylloxera insect from the New World some forty years 

 ago soon caused, wherever introduced, the death of all varieties of 

 European vines or Vitis Vinifera. 



For a long time the methods adopted for combating the 

 deadly insect proved abortive, until a systematic study was under- 

 taken of the conditions under which the Phylloxera vastatrix, an 

 insect of American origin, lived on the American wild vines without 

 perceptibly affecting their constitution. 



The conclusions drawn from these researches are that by a 

 slo\v process of natural selection numerous varieties of American 

 wild vines have perished under the bite of the Phylloxera louse, but 

 that several varieties have been able to withstand the attacks of 

 the insect, and while tolerating its presence on their roots, are 

 able to grow without being perceptibly inconvenienced. This much 

 having been found, vineyard proprietors who had hitherto been 

 fighting the Phylloxera by means of costly chemicals or of methods 

 involving considerable outlay of money and of labour, followed 

 headlono- the line of least resistance and planted for stock any- 

 thing known as an American vine; on these they grafted the choicer 

 European vines. 



Experience, which is generally costly, showed that of the dozen 

 or more of known species of wild American vines, two only, the 

 Vitis Riparia and the Vitis Rupestris, embodied such qualities as 

 made them desirable Phvlloxera-resistant stocks. Fortunes were 



