6 BULLETIN 856, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tribution accounts for the occasional older vines of the variety 

 found in California. 



Repeated unsuccessful attempts have been made to grow currant 

 grapes in this country. 



Vines of the Zante or Corinth currant were imported from France 

 as early as 1854 by the Patent Office and distributed principally in 

 the Middle and Western States. As the root louse x of the grapevine 

 is an insect which is indigenous in the States east of the Rocky 

 Mountains and as the currant grapes, like all varieties of the Vinif era 

 species when they are not grafted on resistant stocks, can not resist 

 the attack of this pest, they were probably soon killed by it. 



On September 27, 1861, Col. Agostin Haraszthy, of Sonoma, Calif., 

 imported the "White and Red Corinth varieties from the Crimea. 



Small plantings of currant grapes are found in different parts of 

 California, and while a few growers have succeeded in getting fair 

 crops of the White Corinth, no one appears to have been able to fruit 

 successfully the superior dark-colored variety from which the cur- 

 rants of commerce are produced. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PANARITI GRAPE. 



Because of the important part it is possible that the Panariti 

 variety may have in the viticulture of this country the following 

 rather detailed description of it is given : 



Vine a vigorous, dense, slightly spreading grower. Young wood medium 

 slender, round; internodes medium, long, thin; nodes slightly enlarged; buds 

 prominent, pointed, starting early ; pith large, discontinuous at diaphragm ; 

 tendrils intermittent, forked; canes light brown, striped, smooth; growing tips 

 reddish and hairy. Leaf medium size, oblong, cordate, five lobed, margin ser- 

 rate; petiolar sinuses deep, narrow, usually overlapping; upper leaf surface 

 dark green with light-colored veins ; lower surface lighter green, slightly 

 pubescent ; petiole medium slender, slightly enlarged at base. 



Blossom entire, small, opens early, stamens upright, longer than pistil. Bloom- 

 ing period medium, blossoms abundant. 



Cluster on ringed vines medium compact, cylindrical, medium length, narrow, 

 prominently shouldered, often winged. Berries small, usually less than one- 

 fourth of an inch in diameter, adhering well, globose, color grizzly to black, 

 with light-colored bloom, surface smooth; skin thin, tender; flesh pearly white, 

 soft, juicy, seedless. Flavor rich, characteristic, very high in sugar, from 

 28.5° to 32.2° Balling scale, and relatively high, from 0.6600 to 0.8725, in acid 

 as tartaric (grama per 100 c. c). Excellent in quality, both as a fresh fruit 

 and dried. Ripens very early, from July 15 to August 15. (PI. III.) Usually 

 produces a very light second crop of small, round, straggling clusters of seeded 

 berries, much larger but in quality inferior to those of the first crop. 



Plate II, showing average clusters of the specially introduced 

 Black Corinth variety from Panariti, Greece, and a cluster each of 

 Red Corinth and White Corinth grapes, will serve better to bring 



1 Phylloxera vast atria;. 



