1^? 



\Yitli varieties of species, -which it is extremely difficult to trace 

 to their primitive stock. Some such a fact seems to attach to 

 the deservedly popular Isabella grape, "VYhich originated in South 

 Carolina, and from its being occasionally killed by our north* 

 ern winters indicates that it is no descendant from any of the 

 species or their seedling varieties, -which gro-w spontaneously in 

 our New England woods. 



Rafinesque in a short treatise, called the American Manual 

 of the Grapevines^ ^c, published in 1880, having studied the 

 manner of growth and habits of our American vines, ingenious- 

 ly, and as it appears to me, significantly divides these numer- 

 ous native seedling varieties into several distinct sections, based, 

 in their best characters, on the shape of the berries, not omit- 

 ting however the form and appearances of the leaves and wood. 

 Under the series of " jd^/oiwZia, berries not globular nor de- 

 pressed, but oblong or oval, as commonly in Vitis Vinifera,^' 

 he has erected into a species which he styles V. prolifera. {Raf.) 

 the Prolific grape (with compound proliferous racemes or btin- 

 ches, and with large elliptical berries), many varieties known 

 under several names and which includes among them the Isa- 

 bella. These varieties above alluded to, he assures us "are 

 real native grapes found from Pennsylvania to Carolina and 

 Ohio, in woods. The grapes are plentiful, large, fine, with a 

 tough skin and a rich sweet juice." Any one who has eaten 

 the fruits of the Isabella ripened in Mr. Allen's present forcing 

 house, where the original vine of the experiment still stands, can 

 attest to the truth of this statement — in the rich, honied and 

 melting pulp, and the skin becoming thinner and free from 

 astringency. 



Having through the attention of Mr. Allen had repeated op- 

 portunities and many facilities to examine the hybrid vines of 

 his raising and which are the subject of this sketch, I entertain 

 no doubt of the perfect success of the experiment as proved from 

 the external appearance of the vines themselves. And when we 

 trace the exact and precise and carefully elaborated experiment 

 itself through all its gradations and steps, we cannot fail of be- 



