— 12 - 



Our plant is readily distinguished from 

 Biparia by the thick diaphragm, the red 

 branches, its late flowering and its bloomless, 

 late ripening berries ; from Cordifolin, the 

 form of the leaves and of the seeds, and its 

 ready growth from cuttings, easily separate it. 



11. Vitis Rip aria., Michaux, the Grape-vine 

 of the river banks, has lately acquired a great 

 deal of importance, as it has now become the 

 principal Grape-vine relied on in France for 

 the renovation of their failing vineyards, for 

 which its vigorous growth, adapted to almost 

 all climates, its perfect resistance to the insect, 

 its easy growth from cuttings, and its ready 

 taking of grafts, seem to peculiarly fit it. 



This species climbs over bushes and small 

 trees, or trails over the rocks on our river 

 banks. It is also found inland, always near 

 water, on larger trees, where its trunk may 

 become six inches thick. The branchlets are 

 rounded, not angled ; the diaphragms very 

 thin (\ to \ line thick) ; the stipules large (2-3 

 lines long) and very thin, and persist longer 

 than in most other species ; leaves of a light 

 green, shining, glabrous or often hairy below, 

 with a wide, rounded, or even truncate sinus ; 

 they are more or less tri-lobed, margined with 

 large, sharp-pointed teeth. The bunches are 

 mostly small and compact ; berries small (four 

 or rarely five lines in diameter), black, with a 

 bloom, sweet and very juicy, scarcely pulpy ; 

 seeds (figs. 22 to 25) obtuse or slightly notched, 

 with a narrow chalaza, raphe indistinct or very 

 thin.* 



It has the widest geographical distribution 

 of any cf our Grape-vines, and is the hardiest 

 of them all. It extends northward to Lake St. 

 Jean, ninety miles north of Quebec, and to the 

 banks of the Upper Mississippi in Minnesota, 

 and the shores of Lake Superior ; in the South 

 it is common on the banks of the Ohio and in 

 Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas,! 



* The French now distinguish several types of Ripa- 

 ria, differing somewhat in their minor characteristics. 

 See our Viticultural Remarks. 



t A peculiar form of Biparia is a plant which I found 

 fifteen years ago in the botanic garden of Berlin, under 

 the name of Vitis Solonis, and about the history of which 

 nobody seems to have known any thing. Lately this 

 plant has been taken up inFrance with that zeal so char- 

 acteristic to that nation, as something possibly of par- 

 ticular interest for their viticultural pursuits. It is 

 distinguished from the ordinary form by the long and 

 narrow, almost incised, crowded teeth of the scarcely 

 three-lobed leaves. The name is undoubtedly a corrup- 

 tion of "Long's," and the plant comes from the Upper 

 Arkansas river, where Major Long, on his return from 

 his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, found, as he re- 

 ports, such excellent grapes. Seeds may have been 

 brought home and the plant raised as "Long's." A 

 manuscript of the viticulturist Bronner, preserved in the 

 Carlsruhe librar-y, speaks of a certain grape-vine as 

 " Longs, from Arkansas," and it is reported that Long's is 

 still growing in the late Mr. Bronner's garden at Wisloch, 

 near Heidelberg, and that it is identical with Solonis. As 

 an example of curious speculative interpretation it may 

 be stated that some viticulturist had read Solonis for 

 Zanis (an oriental grape), and Arkansas for Caucasus. 



and in the Indian Territory. I have not seen 

 it from Louisiana or Texas, but a form of it is 

 found in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and 

 New Mexico, and perhaps in southern Utah. 

 It is the earliest flowering species about St. 

 Louis, according to season, between April 25th 

 and May 15th, and matures earlier than any 

 other. In St. Louis it used to be brought 

 to market, before we had cultivated grapes, 

 sometimes as early as July 1st, from the rocky, 

 sun-exposed banks of the river below town, 

 and was, indeed, known as the " June Grape." 

 From that time on ripe fruit is found, ac- 

 cording to locality, through August and Sep- 

 tember. It is singular that our vintners, as 

 far as I can learn, have never made w r ine from 

 this species, nor tried to cultivate and improve 

 it. The berries probably seem too small, and 

 they may have expected better results from 

 the larger fruits of ^Estivalis ; but the experi- 

 ment might yet be made, and our woods might 

 be examined for larger-fruited varieties, which 

 really do occur, e. g., along the Lakes and on 

 Niagara, near Detroit, etc. 



As has been stated above, this species has 

 been confounded with Vitis cordifolia, to which 

 indeed, it bears a certain resemblance ; but the 

 characters enumerated, especially those of the 

 diaphragms, the stipules, the form of the leaf 

 aud its base, its flowering time, and above all 

 the seeds, distinguish them as well as any two 

 species can be distinguished, even if the diffi- 

 culty of one and the readiness of the other to 

 grow from cuttings be not taken into account. 



12. Vitis Rupestris, Scheele, mostly a 

 low, bushy plant, often without any, or with 

 weak, deciduous tendrils, and not climbing, 

 under favorable circumstances becoming 

 stouter and climbing pretty high ; branchlets 

 rounded, diaphragm thicker than in Biparia, 

 but thinner than in other species ; leaves 

 rather small (about three inches wide), broadly 

 cordate, rarely very slightly lobed, mostly 

 broader than long, usually somewhat folded 

 together, with broad, coarse teeth, and com- 

 monly with an abruptly elongated point, gla- 

 brous, shining, of a very pale green color ; 

 stipules almost as large as in last species, 2-2^ 

 lines long, thin ; berries small or middle- 

 sized, sweet, and in very small bunches ; seeds 

 obtuse, with a slender or almost invisible 

 raphe. 



This Grape-vine, of very peculiar aspect, is 

 a native of the hilly country west of the Mis- 

 sissippi river, from the banks of the Missouri 

 to Texas, find is also found on the Cumberland 

 river near Nashville ; its favorable localities 

 are gravelly banks or bars of mountain streams, 

 overflowed in spring, more rarely (in Texas) 



