hybrids of fair quality, which have been brought into cultivation and have given to us a large 

 number of varieties of improving merit, among which may be named Elvira, Missouri Riesling, 

 Etta, Montefiore, and many others of merit, produced by that veteran, Jacob Rommel, of Mis- 

 souri, also a number of excellent varieties by D. S. Marvin, of New York, and John Sacksteder, 

 of Indiana, and others. In Michigan and Wisconsin wild hybrids with V. bicolor have been found. 

 In Minnesota Louis Suelter found a white variety with which he hybridized Concord, and ob- 

 tained several varieties, black, of medium size, with very early, pure fruit of fair quality. These 

 hybrid vines have endured unprotected a temperature of 45*' to 50° (F.) below zero without 

 injury. One of these named Suelter is earlier than Champion and greatly superior, especially 

 for wine-making. Beta and Monitor are also very early and quite good, of the same parentage. 

 They suffer from heat here, in Texas. 



Natively, in its pure form, it is found in Nova-Scotia, on St. John's River, New Brunswick, 

 along the^St. Lawrence River to 100 miles below Quebec, along the Ottawa River, along the 

 northern side of Lake Superior, thence to the head of Lake Winnipeg, thence 200 miles or more 

 up the Assiniboine River to the Rocky Mountains,* and all southward from that northern limit 

 into Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and west to Denison, on Red River, Texas southeast, 

 Kansas up the Arkansas River, and one locality on Salt Lake, Utah, of doubtful origin. In the 

 cretaceous formations of Southeastern Colorado, Western Oklahoma, Northwestern Texas, 

 and New Mexico, it is replaced by V. Longii, a form about midway between it and V. rupes- 

 tris, rather more like the latter in several respects and with some peculiar characteristics of 

 its own (see V. Longii). Prefers moist but well drained, loamy, sandy, high river and lake 

 banks, where it is usually found. 



This species offers fine qualities for hybridizing to obtain very early hardy varieties for 

 the extreme north. It, in its largest and best native forms, is especially to be recommended 

 to experimenters, for the purpose of producing (hybridized with such as Ives, WoodrufE, 

 Worden, Perkins, Moore Early, Eaton, Moore Diamond, America, Greins Golden, Brilliant, 

 Jaeger No. 100, Etta, etc.) a tribe of "iron-clad" varieties for the extreme northern and 

 northwestern parts of the country, of pure native blood or nearly so, good quality for table 

 or wine, that will endure the climate without protection. There is all the great Northwest 

 region, consisting of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota, and parts of Wyoming 

 and Montana, that has a superior climate for extra early grapes, if they can be obtained 

 hardy enough to endure the winters. It is a region free from mildew and rot. There is nothing 

 to prevent it from becoming a great grape country, for the material certainly exists, which 

 can be developed into very excellent varieties. All the streams of that territory have growing 

 along their borders abundance of wild V. vulpina, some varieties of which are quite good of 

 themselves, but need enlarging in berfy and cluster, an easy accomplishment in the hands of 

 an expert hybridizer. Into this development should be worked the finer varieties of V. bicolor 

 in Northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and in Michigan and Wisconsin to the 43d 

 parallel. 



Owing to the resistance to Phylloxera, ease of growth from cuttings and ease of grafting, 

 V. vulpina and V. rupestris are now used in Europe far more than any other species upon which 

 to graft their favorite Vinifera varieties, but they are not suited to their very limy soils, such 

 as ^the cretaceous soils of the Cherente-Inferieure, in which it is found that the V. Berlandieri 

 succeeds best, which see, under "Viticultural Remarks," for that species. 



* John Macoun, Botanist to Canadian Geological Survey. 

 —97— 



