Roots: Little fibrous, rather few divisions, wrinkled transversely, medium hardness, deeply 

 penetrating. 



Wood: When young distinctly angled, covered with dense whitish felt, dull green, becoming 

 pale brown or ash colored under the ashy pubescence or floccose cotton or both ; outer bark at 

 maturity finely striated, rather persistent, flaking off the second year into fibrous plates; true 

 bark finely dividing into fibrous ridges; wood rather soft to cut; cross section of annual wood 

 shows distinct rays, porous; nodes usually much enlarged; diaphragm commonly 1/8' to 1/6' 

 thick, often much thicker, biconcave; buds small, conical or sub-triangled, acute, grayish- 

 brown, in unfolding, rosy crimson, salmon in var. Floridana, tip closed; tendrils once, or more 

 often twice forked, very long, cottony, smooth with maturity, of same color as mature wood, 

 persistent, strong; intemodes long, 2' to 6' or more, pith large,,enlarged at lower end, brown. 



Leaves: Stipules minute, cottony; petiole quite variable, usually less in length than half the 

 width of blade, sometimes more, especially in leaves from ground shoots; petiole terete or pris- 

 matic in section,, narrowly and deeply grooved, striated, densely velvety or cottony, or both, 

 pubescence obscuring groove, remaining so to maturity, set at obtuse angle with blade; blade 

 sometimes 6' to 7', rarely 8' to 9' in length, broad, plane or slightly convexing upward, cordate; 

 basal sinus deep, mostly A shaped with double curved sides, narrow or broad, rarely n shaped 

 in specimens from Coahuila, Mexico; basal lobes generally short, obtuse; lateral lobes, or shoul- 

 ders, approaching the apex, imequal, one commonly more prominent and acute than the other ; apex 

 large, long, lanceolate, acute; teeth small, shallow, convex, with small mucron; venation from gener- 

 ally 8 to 9 pairs of mostly opposite, rather prominent ribs ; upper surface covered when young with 

 a thick, whitish felt, becoming thinner and drawn out (appressed) along the surface in cobwebby hairs, 

 gradually shedding, becoming floccose and disappearing at maturity of leaf, rugose, dull dark 

 green; all the under face covered closely with a thin, short, hairy or pubescent ash-colored felt, same 

 as on petiole and young wood. Leaves on ground shoots of old roots usually 3 to 5 lobed, with 

 rounded, nearly closed sinuses; entire on seedlings first year. 



Cluster: Fertile, — large to medium, generally quite open, peduncle long, striated, more slender 

 from vine to node than next to cluster, usually bearing a simple false tendril, at node, or a small 

 shoulder, or secondary cluster, on long peduncle, when the false tendril is so transformed; rachis 

 usually twice divided, — compound — cottony or pubescent; pedicels numerous, slender, warty. 



Flowers: Fertile, — stamens 5 to 6, generally 5, short, recurved, and bent laterally; ovary 

 and style very small, slender; stigma minute; sterile, — stamens long, slender, ascending. 



Berries: 1/5' to 1/3' in diameter, spherical, black or purple, with little or no prunose bloom, 

 not shining unless rubbed, very persistent; skin thin, toygh, little coloring matter; pulp tender, 

 melting, juicy, acid till fully ripe, then vinous, sweet, sprightly,, pure not pungent. 



Seeds: 1 to 3, generally 3; 1/6' to 1/5' long by 5/6 as broad, ovoid when one in a berry, 

 color light purplish- gray; beak small, sharp, well defined; raphe prominent, about filling groove, 

 and extending prominently from the beak to chalaza; chalaza circular or short, ovate, sometimes 

 hastate or truncate at base, as in V. cordifolia, moderately prominent, about even with surface of 

 seed, and lying in the center of back of seed ; basin shallow, with border often wrinkled, surround- 

 ing chalaza, and extending to or over the rounded top of seed, also a faint groove from chalaza to 

 beak; ventral depressions shallow, near together, of a lighter brownish color than body of seed. 



Plantlet: Cotyledons small, medium long, narrowly ovate, taper-pointed, green much the 

 same as in V. Berlandieri. 



Viticultural Observations and Remarks 



Germination early to medium ; foliation late to very late; inflorescence very late, from the 

 first to the eighth of June at Denison, Texas, some two. weeks later than V. Lincecumii; ripening 

 of fruit very late, — September, October and November in--Northem Texas. 



Gro-s^h first year from seed or cutting feeble,— slender and reclining, then becoming very 

 vigorous; enduring cold moderately,— about equally with V. cestivalis ,—a.nd great extremes of 

 drouth and moisture; is remarkably free from disease; very long lived. 



—66— 



