Dr. Engelmann. 
GRAPE MANUAL. 
Classification. +) 
‘THE TRUE* GRAPE-VINES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
BY DR, G, ENGELMANN. 
The Grape-vines are among the most varia- 
ble plants, even in their wild state, in which 
Climate, soil, shade, humidity, and perhaps 
natural hybridization, have originated such a 
multiplicity and such an intermixture of forms, 
that it is often difficult to recognize the original 
types and to refer the different given forms to 
their proper alliances. Only by carefully study- 
ing a large number of forms from 
the country, in their peculiar mode of growth 
and especially their fructification, or rather 
their seeds, are we enabled to arrive at any 
thing like a satisfactory disposition of these 
plants. (Table of Grape Seeds; fig. 1-33, page 13.) 
Before I proceed to the classification of our 
Grape-vines, I woe = ‘iceroape! to make a 
‘few preliminary re 
The grape-vines “eatiteiad in that part of 
the United States lying east of the Rocky 
Mountains are all natives of the co 
. product of natural or artificial hybridization. 
In that part of the country the wine grapes of 
the Old World can only be cultivated under 
glass; but in New Mexico and California they 
have been successfully introduced by the Span- 
iards, and in the latter State a great many va- 
rieties are now extensively cultivated, and 
ous, or, not quite correctly, 
‘atertle plants do bear male flowers with abor- 
_ tive pistils, so that while they never produce 
‘fruit themselves, they may assist in fertilizing 
others; the fertile flowers however, are 
hermaphrodites, containing bo ns—sta- 
pistils—and are capable of ripening 
flowers, without any stamens, do 
Real female 
not seem ever fo have been observed Both 
“ape-vines, with edi- 
the small ; 
: nied ‘ tee onto ea apo By ogee separat 
: a 
in 
are perfect gay rete, we 
eS 
: that th Thales ouphs to ame species ee 
better, to the same i desta as ae “fertile sons robe - 
‘+ Theoe fertile plants Soares ors some | 
forms, the male and hermaphrodite, or if pre- 
ferred, those with sterile and those with com- 
plete flowers, are found mixed in their native 
localities of the wild plants, but of course, 
only the fertile plants have been selected for 
cultivation, and thus it happens that to the 
cultivator only these are known; and as the 
Grape-vine of the Old World has been in eul- 
tivation for thotisands of years, it has resulted 
that this hermaphrodite character of its flow- 
_ ers has been mistaken for a botanical peculiar- 
ity, by which it was to be distinguished, not 
only from our American Grape-vines, but also 
from the wild grapes of the Old World. But 
' plants raised from the seeds of this, as well as 
of any other true Grape-vine, generaliy furnish 
as many sterile as fertile specimens, while 
those propagated by layering or by cuttings, 
of course, only continue the individual charac- 
ter of the mother-plant or stock.* 
The peculiar disposition of the tendrils in 
the Grape-vines furnishes an important char- 
ia ria for the distinction of one of our most 
commonly cultivated species, Vitis labrusca, 
its wild and its cultivated varieties, from all 
OGSES, In this panels ™ is the only true 
their equiv 
Zz 
CA's 
eae ie this arrangement i designate as con- 
tinuous tendrils. All the other species known 
to me exhibit a regular alternation of two 
leaves, each having a tendril opposite it, with 
a third leaf without such a tendril, and this 
to 
aon sprouts of extraordinary vigor, 
around the pistil ; the others bear smaller 
shaeba: than the pistil, which soon bend 
curve under it; may be be called 
dites, approaching females, and they 
= Beate xccor wd the = hermap. tes. 
we is: proper here, to an ga ron = t that nature 
not Reis onsets, the male — a di 
without ee is sound in the 
belong to 
benefitted b Seen pollen, 
also profit Db. ¥ roe enor Se 
* Some obect resinous cae ee ei OE - 
) to the p ioe Se eee 
te god 
