MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON VITIS, 427 
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[smaller], broadly dentate, glabrous leaves and smallest berries in larger bunches, rhaphe usually strongly developed on 
the top of the seed as a well-marked cord, — from New England to Missouri, Nebraska, an exas ; V. riparia, with 
larger, incisely dentate, usually sharply 3-lobed, glabrous leaves, larger berries in small bunches, rhaphe slightly visible 
on top of seed, — from Canada to the Rocky Mountains and to Texas; V. Arizonica, with smaller, broadly cordate, 
sharply dentate leaves, floccose at first, glabrous afterwards, middle-sized berries in small bunches, rhaphe more or less 
indistinet on top of seed ; V. Californica, with middle-sized, narrowly cordate, broadly dentate, always tomentose or 
canescent leaves, small berries in large bunches, rhaphe invisible on the broad seed, — found only on the Pacific slope, 
from the Sacramento Valley southward. 
The fruit of V. Arizonica belongs, like that of V. riparia, to the better class of American grapes ; while that of 
the two others is scarcely edible, this is said to be quite luscious, and will in time no doubt be cultivated in a warmer 
climate. Dr. Palmer’s seeds have germinated well with me, but the vines perished in the climate of St. Louis, after a 
lingering existence of several years. The seeds show a remarkable variability in form and markings, so as to weaken 
to some extent their specific value. I find them generally obtuse, but emarginate and even notched on top ; the 
chalaza is small, but usually quite prominent and is narrowed upward into the rhaphe, which on the top of the seed 
becomes inconspicuous, or in some instances remains quite prominent. 
Dr. Parry’s specimens from southwestern Utah are distinguished from all the Arizona specimens I have seen, by 
having somewhat lobed leaves. Their sterile flowers exhibit the usual form, longer anthers on long straight filaments, 
which in the bud are inflexed ; in the fertile flower-bud the stamens are shorter than the pistil, the filaments straight 
and scarcely as long as the short anthers, and after fecundation recurved. I could discover no difference in the condi- 
tion of the pollen of both kinds of flowers. This seems to be the ordinary form of the fertile flowers in our wild 
species, and in some cultivated ones, while some other stocks bear fertile flowers with long stamens, thus constituting 
the incompletely polygamous character of our grape-vines; purely pistillate flowers I have never seen, and doubt 
whether they exist. 
V. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ON VITIS. 
From BULLETIN OF THE TorREY BoranicAL CLuB, VoL. VI. 1878-1879. 
Vitis cordifolia, L., and V. riparia, Michx.,* are still mixed up in the opinion of many [233] 
of our botanists, and trouble them, whenever they are obliged to touch them. The observa- 
tions made this spring have again confirmed my long-settled conviction of their absolute specific dif- 
ference, and may help others to better distinguish them. 
Vitis riparia was in bloom here in the last week in April, and in favorable localities (on the 
rocky, sun-exposed banks of the Mississippi,) even before the 20th of that month. V. cordifolia 
bloomed fully four weeks later, and even into this month of June, long after Labrusca, and a little 
before 4Zstivalis. As this spring was an unusually early one, it is better to compare their flowering 
with that of well-known trees; thus Riparia bloomed after the apple-tree, and about the time when 
the first garden roses and the first Acacia (Robinia) blossoms made their appearance; Cordifolia 
bloomed when the flowers of Ailantus exhaled their nauseous odor and Catalpa blossoms were just 
opening. : 
The young, half-grown leaf of Riparia is glossy shining (on the upper surface), and is supported 
by a pair of conspicuous, white, membranaceous stipules, oblong or linear-oblong, two or three lines 
in length; the mature leaf is scarcely wrinkled, and of a bright deep green color, and usually has a 
broad, at the base truncate, sinus. | 
The leaf of Cordifolia is always dull, even when young, perfectly smooth, and paler green, and 
its rounded short stipules are mostly less than one line in length; the sinus, though it may be wide, 
is always acute. es 
I need not repeat that the shape of the leaves in typical specimens is distinct enough, but that 
forms occur, which, without the help of other characters, it would be difficult to keep apart; and 
this made undoubtedly the great difficulty in the distinction of both species. 
* A tabulation of the differences here enumerated is given by Millardet in La Vigne Américaine, Oct. 15, 1878, 
Pp. 225, 226, and in Notes sur les Vignes Américaines, Bordeaux, 1881, p. 104. — Eps. 
