THE TRUE GRAPE-VINES OF THE UNITED STATES. 423 
A common plant from the Middle ei nic to Texas ; not known, I believe, in Northern New York or 
New England, but not rare in Pennsylvan w Jersey, and eared also near the city of New York ; very common 
in the deep soil of the western river silken’: where it takes its fullest development. There the trunk sometimes reaches 
thirty to thirty-eight inches in circumference (Southern Missouri, along the Iron Mountain Railroad) ; whether the 
trunk found by Mr. Ravenel at Darien, Georgia, measuring forty-four sted around, belongs to this species, I cannot 
tell, but his supposition that it was Zstivalis is quite improbable ; the statement of new spapers that a grape-vine in 
Gulf Hammock, in Florida, had a circumference of sixty-nine inches, is considered a “ fish story ” by Florida botanists. 
e acute, mostly narrow sinus of the leaves, the small stipules, the broad diaphragms, the character of the seeds, 
the circumstance that it don’t grow from cuttings, and the late flowering time, abundantly distinguish this species from 
Vitis riparia, with which it has been thrown together so long and so obstinately. 
10, Vitis paLmata, Vahl, has been cultivated in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for perhaps one hundred years 
or more, and has thence found its way into other Pa gardens, without, however, as it seems, having attracted the 
attention of botanists, since its first publication, i 
ahl’s description is accurate enough, ith pis iad of its native country, which he pe as “ Virginia,” a 
negligence or ignorance which we must not criticise too severely in botanists of a century ago. eed was originally 
brought to Paris probably by French missionaries, who, as is well known, roamed about in the Mississippi Valley one 
and two hundred years ago. Soon after the publication of Vahl’s description of this grape, above mentioned, Michaux 
discovered this interesting species “ growing abundantly on the banks of the streams in Illinois,” and named it V. rubra. 
He don’t seem to have recognized the vine ‘stank he might have seen ‘growing under his eyes in Paris, and eventually 
he merged his specimens of this Vitis in his herbarium under iparva 
Last fall Mr. H. Eggert, of St. Louis, re-discovered this long fagloakid plant on the banks of the a 
opposite Alton, and collected it there again this summer, when it proved to be the latest blooming of all o 
(far from blooming yet pen June 10th). There can be no » doubt of the meer of this eet with Vahl’s y plies 
and Michaux’s Rubra, nor of its entire distinctness from J for id, with this last one, covering willow 
thickets and other basher in low grounds, overflowed during high wate Shy bright red Ssicitina: from which the bark 
separates in large flakes, conspicuous between the smooth but dull, darkish foliage (much darker than Riparia), show 
at once how appropriate Michaux’s name is. The diaphragms are thick. The leaves have a broad sinus, and are shallow 
or often deeply 3, rarely 5-lobed, the lobes usually drawn out ser long and slender points; the under side is 
often somewhat hairy along the nerves ; stipules middle sized, 1} to 2 lines long ; flower-bunches large and loose, on 
long stems ; berries rather small (4-5 lines through), black, vithont bloom ; seeds 1 or 2, very large and plump, 
rounded, with very short beak, notched on top, without a visible rha 
Our plant is readily distinguished from Riparia by the thick i Ry the red branches, its late [18 (12)] 
flowering and its bloomless, late ripening Ss from Cordifolia the form of the leaves and of the seeds, an 
its ready growth from cuttings, easily separate 
11. VITIS RIPARIA, ee the ot of the river banks, has lately acquired a great deal of importance, as it 
has now become the principal grape-vin ied on in France for the renovation of their failing vineyards, for which its 
vigorous growth, adapted to oe all donnie, its perfect resistance to the insect, its easy growth from cuttings, and 
its ready taking of grafts, seem to peculiarly fit it. 
his species ocean over bushes and small trees, or trails over the rocks on our river banks. It is also found 
— always near water, on larger trees, where its trunk may become 6 inches thick. The branchlets are rounded, 
angled ; the diaphragms very thin (} to } line thick) ; the stipules large (2-3 lines long) and very thin, and per- 
a tones thee in most other s i i 
rounded, or even truncate sinus; they are more or less nent 
bunches are mostly small and compact ; berries small (4 or eet 
and very juicy, scarcely pulpy ; seeds (figs. 22 to 25) obtuse or slightl y notched, with a narrow chalaza, rhaphe Sndietinck 
or very thin.” 
a kes has the widest geographical distribution of uny of our grape-vines, and is the hardiest of them all. It extends 
northward to Lake St. Jean, ninety miles north of Quebec, and to the banks of the Upper Mississippi in Minnesota, 
and the shores of Lake Superior ; in the South it is common on the banks of the Ohio and in Kentucky, Illinois, Mis- 
souri and Arkansas,’ and in the Indian Territory. I have not seen it from Louisiana or Texas, but a form of it is 
7 The French now distinguish several types of Riparia, 
differing somewhat in their minor characteristics, See ou 
ee Remarks. . 
peculiar form of Riparia is a re which I found 
ics years ago in the Botanic Garden of Berlin, under the 
name of Vitis Solonis, and about the fatty of which nobody 
seems to have known anything. Lately this plant has been 
taken up in France with that zeal so characteristic of that 
nation, as something possibly of particular interest for their 
rte A eng It is distinguished from the ordinary 
by t g and narrow, almost incised, crowded teeth 
of th the lett yt lobed leaves. The name is undoubtedly 
