426 COLLECTED DESCRIPTIONS OF VITIS. 
only one example, one of such seedlings —-the now frequently cultivated Elvira —is a Taylor 
seedling with a close approach to Labrusca. 
It would further the study of our grape-vines considerably if some of those that have the zeal, 
the leisure, and the opportunity, would institute such experiments with doubtful forms. 
Pursuing this interesting subject further, I may add that where nearly allied species grow near 
together, and bloom about the same time, they are more likely to hybridize than such species that 
are separated by wide space or different period of flowering. With all these considerations we must 
not forget that with the innumerable opportunities given everywhere for hybridization we find com- 
paratively so few spontaneous hybrids in the vegetable world. Hybridization is an abnormal, I may 
say, an unnatural process, which is usually prevented by countless obstacles. If it were not so, we 
would meet with more hybrids in our woods and prairies than with genuine species; but how rare 
are they, and what a find it is for a botanist to discover one! And this is the more to be wondered 
at, because the genital organs of the plants, though mostly united in one flower, are usually so 
organized that self-fertilization i is made difficult, or is excluded, and that cross-fertilization is the rule. 
We may put it down as a law that honest nature abhors hybridization. 
IV. COLLECTED DESCRIPTIONS OF VITIS. 
From ADDENDA TO GRAY’s MANUAL OF THE BoTANy OF THE NorTHERN UnireD States. New York, 1868. 
2. VITIS ASTIVALIS, VAR.? CINEREA, Engelm. Branchlets and both sides of the almost entire leaves canes- [679] 
cent, even when mature ; berries very small, black and shining, very acid until after frost. — Rich bottom lands 
in the Mississippi Valley, Illinois, and Southward. 
3. V. corpiFoia, Michz. Has the small berries black without bloom, the small seeds rounded above and with 
@ prominent rhaphe. Unfit for cultivation. 
3a. V. RIPARIA, Michx. Leaves larger, usually incisely 3-lobed, the lobes long-pointed ; panicles small, rather 
simple ; berries larger and mostly with bloom ; seeds larger, obtuse or somewhat obcordate and with an inconspicuous 
rhaphe. — May, earlier than V. cordifolia. Thickets and river-banks, from Vermont to Michigan and Illinois. Seve 
varieties in cultivation : the most esteemed white one is the Taylor-Bullit Grape. The celebrated claret-colored 
Delaware Grape seems also to belong here, 
From Botanica, OpservATions In Sournern Uran, No. 4, py Dr. C. C. Parry (Amer. Naturauist, Vow. IX. 
75). 
30. Vitis Arizontca, ». sp. Young branchlets, leaves and inflorescence densely floccose-tomentose, adult naked 
or usually (at least on the nerves of the leaves) beset with short hairs ; leaves (small) orbiculate, cordate, with a wide 
(sometimes very broad) sinns, acute, with irregular, sharp, often very pointed, rather small teeth ; rarely 3-5- 
lobed with rounded sinuses ; tendrils intermitting,! branched ; fertile inflorescence and bunches of Saitied shorter [269] 
than leaf ; berries small or middle-sized (2-3} lines in diameter) ; ; seeds mostly 2-3, usually obtuse with a small 
but prominent chalaza and more or less indistinct rhaphe. Vitis estivalis, var. ? Gray, Pl. Wright, pt. 2, p. 27. Torrey, 
Pac. R. Rep. 7, Bot. p. 9.— Common along the streams of Arizona, where it was first collected by the botanists of the 
Mexican Boundary, and of some of the Pacific Railroad Expeditions; later by Dr. Palmer, who made an especial 
study of it and gathered numerous specimens in mature fruit ; Dr. Parry’s collections are from southwestern Utah. — 
With some hesitation I venture to introduce a new species in this intricate genus, and especially in the Cordifolia 
group ; but as this form cannot well be united with any of its allies, it will have to try and stand for itself. The 
forms belonging to the Cordifolia group are distinguished by their more or less entire leaves and small berries ; they 
extend over the whole breadth of the continent from northeast to southwest, and are: V. cordifolia, with larger 
a Intermitting tendrils we find i in those species <3 Vitis these the tendrils are’ “continuous ; i. e., each leaf has a tendril 
chin leaf without a tendril, and i the [269] acter distinguishes at once all forms of Vitis Labrusea. 
ordinary oceurrence in all our grape-vines, wil with. th Branched tendrils are found in all our species, with the 
ee of V. Labrusca and its cultivated ete: in exception of V. vulpina, which bears simple tendrils. 
