.Dfxember 19, 1894.] 



Uarden and Forest. 



509 



point no statement is made. If this supposition is not cor- 

 rect, the question arises, How did the knots cut in Novem- 

 ber, 1894, arise? All the knots, both on sprayed and 

 unsprayed trees, were removed on April 25th, 1894. If we 

 admit that the removal was thorough, which implies that 

 the branches were cut off several inches below the old 

 knots, we cannot suppose that the new knots came from 

 the continued growth of the mycelium of the old knots. 

 If we are not to suppose that the new knots came from 

 infection by conidia of 1894 we are forced to believe that 

 they came from infection either by the conidia of 1893 or 

 by infection from ascospores of 1894, which germinated 

 previous to April 25th, when the spraying began. Mr. 

 Lodeman appears to exclude the latter alternative since he 

 states that he has "failed to find any distinct indication of 

 the (new) knots before early spring " ; that is, infection by 

 ascospores early in spring, 1S94, would not produce dis- 

 tinct new knots until the spring of 1S95. We are left, then, 

 with the supposition that the knots of November, 1894, 

 came from infection by conidia of the summer of 1893, at 

 a date when the spraying was discontinued, and we must 

 also suppose that no knots were produced until the sum- 

 mer or autumn of 1S94, since they would otherwise have 

 been removed when all the knots were cut off in April, 

 1894. The action of the Bordeaux mixture in this case 

 must then have been upon the mycelium in the branches 

 before the knots formed, which is hardly probable, for, in 

 other cases, its action consists mainly in checking the 

 entrance of spores rather than in destroying the mycelium 

 already in the interior of the branches. 



It seems more probable, if we consider only the evidence 

 given above, remembering how much more favorable the 

 results were in 1894 than in 1S93, and that in 1894 the dry 

 months of summer especially favored spraying, that the 

 great good done by the mixture in this case was by destroy- 

 ing the conidia produced in 1894. Against this supposition 

 is the belief, held not only by the writer, but by many other 

 mycologists, that the conidia matured in summer do not 

 produce knots the same autumn. From the present experi- 

 ments one is lead to ask, Is this view, held by many bota- 

 nists, correct? — Ed.] 



Correspondence. 



Pearson's Ironclad Grape. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In 1873, when the Grape-rot became epidemic at Vine- 

 land, New Jersey, I learned from Colonel Scott, then the Pres- 

 ident of Pennsylvania Railroad Company, that on his grounds 

 near Darby, Pennsylvania, was a wild native Grape-vine, the 

 fruit of which his gardener reported "free from the rot." 1 

 secured cuttings ot this vine, and when they fruited I named it 

 the Scott Grape. Later on, my father, then aged seventy-six 

 years, told me he had gathered grapes from this old vine when 

 a boy, about the year 1806, when the Scott place was owned 

 by his great-grandmother, Mrs. Ash, and this wild Grape-vine, 

 then an old one, furnished grapes for the neighborhood. 

 There were then no Grapes cultivated in this country. This 

 vine was known in its vicinity as the Ash Grape. It was said 

 to have been bearing fruit when my ancestor, John Pearson, 

 landed with William Perm at Chester, on the river Dela- 

 ware. 



Finding that its fruit was good and that it did not rot, I called 

 attention to it as Pearson's Ironclad Grape, sending vines, 

 cuttings and seed of it to France, Spain, Australia and Cali- 

 fornia. French wine-makers pronounced it an excellent Bur- 

 gundy Grape. At our National Viticultural Convention, in 

 Washington, District of Columbia, 1886, I exhibited wine from 

 the Ironclad, and it attracted much attention. Mr. Charles A. 

 Wetmore, President of the Convention, styled this Ironclad 

 juice, on account of its deep color, a true native American 

 Ink ! Writing, made with this juice, May 20th, 1886, is yet 

 quite legible in 1894. 



When Professors Viala, of France, and F. L. Scribner, Chief 

 of Division of Vegetable Pathology of our Department of 

 Agriculture, visited my vineyard in 1887, to inaugurate experi- 

 ments against fungous diseases of the vine, we saw Pearson's 

 Ironclad fruiting healthfully in the midst of rotting Concords. 



It was thought that this resistance to the rot germs might be 

 due to a peculiar thickness or toughness of the grape's cuticle, 

 but, upon comparison under the microscope of the skins of 

 berries of the Concord, the Ives and the Ironclad, the profes- 

 sors pronounced the skin of the Ironclad the thinnest. 



This vine has fruited here annually since 1876, yet its grapes 

 have never rotted. Its foliage is infected by mildew, Peronos- 

 pora Viticola, but this on the leaves does not harm the vine 

 or its fruit. Perhaps this is because this Ironclad vine never 

 stops growing until freezing weather stops it. It makes fresh 

 canes and foliage constantly, until all are killed by frost. The 

 sap seems to be never dormant here. No matter whether 

 pruned in autumn or in the winter the cuts always bleed in 

 mild weather. It is wonderfully vigorous, a cross apparently 

 of Vitis Riparia and V. Labrusca. Its flowers have reflexed 

 stamens, and, consequently, it is capricious in fruiting. If 

 rains occur during the critical period of its blossoming its 

 clusters are defective. I find, however, that this damage may 

 be averted or mitigated by planting near it the male V. Rupes- 

 tris, which blooms at the same time. 



Clusters of Ironclad are small, compact, shouldered, some- 

 times doubly so ; the size of the berry between that of Con- 

 cord and of Clinton ; the color black, and the juice a royal 

 purple. It Mowers early ; sets fruit before Concord blossoms 

 open ; is fully colored by August 10th, but not fully ripe before 

 September 25th ; and the berries will hang fast on the vine till 

 December. 



Though good to eat when ripe, it is of no value for market 

 as a table grape. It is essentially a wine grape. It makes a 

 good stock to graft other varieties on, and for this is used in 

 France and Spain, as it resists the phylloxera. 



I have grafted on it other varieties of our Grapes, especially 

 the Catawba, which is thus improved in quality and ripens 

 earlier. 



On its own roots this Ironclad is almost too rampant. The 

 largest crop of grapes that I have taken in one season from 

 one vine, when permitted to extend itself, was 396 pounds. 



Vineiami, n. j. A. IV. Pearson. 



Recent Publications. 



The Flora of Nebraska, edited by the members of the 

 Botanical Seminary of the University of Nebraska. 



The members of the Botanical Seminary of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska, under the inspiration and instigation of 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey, have for a considerable time 

 been actively engaged in a botanical survey of that state, 

 and have now begun the publication of an elaborate illus- 

 trated Flora. The arrangement of the Flora, Professor 

 Bessey tells us, in his short introduction, will be from 

 primitive and simple forms to those which are derived or 

 more complex. Two parts have recently appeared. The 

 first, embracing sixty-eight pages, illustrated with twenty- 

 two plates, contains the description, chiefly by Mr. De Alton 

 Saunders, of the green plants belonging to the Protophyta 

 and Phycophyta, and of the fungi of these groups, by 

 Messrs. Roscoe Pound and Frederick R. Clements. The 

 second part, with nine pages and fourteen plates, by Mr. 

 Albert F. Woods, is devoted to the Coleochajtacece and the 

 Characea?. It is proposed to complete the work in twenty- 

 five parts, the twenty-fifth being devoted to a catalogue of 

 the plants of the state, to which will be added a host 

 index of the parasitic fungi. 



The region embraced within the limits of the state of 

 Nebraska, extending from the valley of the lower Missouri 

 to the eastern base of the outlying ranges of the Rocky 

 Mountains, is one of the great meeting grounds of the 

 eastern and western floras, which mingle here more freely, 

 perhaps, than in any other part of the continent. Ac- 

 cording to Professor Bessey, "a careful study of the flora 

 of Nebraska shows that not only all the great branches 

 of the vegetable kingdom are represented, but that of the 

 fifteen classes fourteen are represented, and that of the 

 fifty-four orders forty-three are represented, while of the three 

 hundred and eighty-six families there are representatives of 

 about one-half. On the other hand, of the one hundred 

 and seventy-five thousand species of plants now known, 

 probably little, if any. more than two per cent, occur 

 within our borders." 



