White and Greenish 



millionaire had he received only a penny royalty on ev^ry Con- 

 cord grape-vine planted. 



What fragrance is more delicious than that of the blossoming 

 grape ? To swing in a loop made by some strong old vine, when 

 the air almost intoxicates one with its sweetness on a June even- 

 irig, is many a country child's idea of perfect bliss. Not until about 

 nine o'clock do the leaves " go to sleep " by becoming depressed 

 in the centre like saucers. This was the signal for bedtime that 

 one child, at least, used to wait for. We have seen in the clema- 

 tis (p. 1 82) how its sensitive leaf-stalks hook themselves over any 

 support they rub against ; but the grape-vine has gone a step far- 

 ther, and by discarding an occasional flower cluster and prolong- 

 ing the flower stalk into a coiling, forking tendril it moors itself 

 to the thicket. We know that all tendrils are either transformed 

 leaves, as in the case of the pea vine, where each branch of its 

 tendril represents a modified leaflet ; or they are transformed 

 flower-stalks or other organs. Occasionally the tendril of a grape- 

 vine reveals its ancestry by bearing a blossom or a cluster of flow- 

 ers, and sometimes even fruit, about midway on the coil, which 

 attempts to fill all offices at once like Pooh Bah. 



The phylloxera having destroyed many of the finest vineyards 

 in Europe, it would seem that Americans have the best of chances 

 to supply the world with high-class wines, for there is not a State 

 in the LJnion where the vine will not flourish. Here its worst 

 enemy is mildew, a parasitical fungus which attacks the leaves, 

 revealing itself in yellowish-brown patches on the upper side, and 

 thin, frosty patches underneath. Soon the leaves become sere, 

 and then they fall. The microscope reveals a miniature forest 

 of growth in each leaf, with the threadlike roots of the fungi 

 searching about the leaf-cells for food. To burn old leaves, and 

 to blow sulphur over the vine while it is wet, are efficacious reme- 

 dies. Bees and wasps which puncture grapes to feast on them, 

 are the innocent means of destroying quantities. 



Both the Riverside or Sweet-scented Grape (K vulpina) — 

 formerly K cordifoUa, var. riparia — whose bluish-black, bloom- 

 covered fruit begins to ripen in July; and the Frost, Chicken, 

 Possum, or Winter Grape (K. cordifolia), whose smaller, shining 

 black berries are not at their best till after frost, grow along 

 streams and preferably in rocky situations. The shining, light 

 green, thin leaves of the sweet-scented species are sharply lobed, 

 the three to seven lobes have acute teeth, and the tendrils are in- 

 termittent. The frost grape's leaves, which are commonly three 

 or four inches wide, are deeply heart-shaped, entire (rarely slightly 

 three-lobed), tapering to a long point and acutely toothed. 



Another familiar member of the Grape family, the Virginia 

 Creeper, False Grape, American or Five-leaved Ivy, also errone- 



217 



