13 



on rocky plains. In Missouri it is called Sand 

 grape, in Texas often, on account of its lus- 

 cious fruit, Sugar grape ; with us it flowers 

 soon after Raparia and ripens in August, and 

 is said to make a good wine. In France the 

 V. Rupestris is used, like the last species, as a 

 grafting stock for French vines ; it grows 

 easily from cuttings, and is said to make vig- 

 orous plants, perfectly resistant to the insect. 



Vitis Vinifeka, Linnaeus. Here would be the 

 place to introduce the Grape-vine of the Old 'World, as 

 it is most nearly allied to the last enumerated species, 

 especially to V. riparia. Though many of its culti- 

 vated varieties bear berries as large, or even larger, 

 than those of any of our American Grape-vines, other 

 cultivated forms, and especially the true wine-grapes, 

 those from which the best wines are obtained, and 

 also the wild or naturalized ones, have fruit not much 

 larger than that of the above named native species. 



This plant, together with the wheat, belongs to 

 those earliest acquisitions of cultivation, the history of 

 which reaches beyond the most ancient written rec- 

 ords. Not only have the sepulchres of the mummies 

 of ancient Egypt preserved us its fruit (large sized 

 berries) and seed, but its seeds have even been discov- 

 ered in the lacustrian habitations of Northern Italy. 

 It is a mooted question where to look for the native 

 country of this plant, and whether or not we owe the 

 different varieties of our present Vinifera to one or to 

 several countries, and to one or to several original 

 wild species, which, by cultivation through uncounted 

 ages, and by accidental and repeated hybridization, 

 may have produced the numberless forms now known. 

 These remind us forcibly of the numerous forms of 

 our dog, which we cannot trace, either, but which can 

 scarcely be derived from a single (supposed) original 

 wild species. Director Kegel, of St. Petersburg, as- 

 cribes them to the intermingling of a few species, well 

 known in their wild state at this day. The late Prof. 

 Braun, of Berlin, suggested that they are the offspring 

 of distinct species yet found wild in many parts of 

 Southern Europe and Asia, which thus he consid- 

 ered not the accidental offspring of the cultivated 

 plants, as is generally believed, but the original parent 

 stock. I may add, from my own investigations, that 

 the Grape-vine which inhabits the native forests of th 

 low banks of the Danube, " bottom- woods," as we 

 would call them, from Vienna down into Hungary, 

 well represents our V. cordifolia, with its stems three, 

 six and nine inches thick, and climbing on the highest 

 trees, its smooth and shining, scarcely lobed leaves, 

 and its small, black berries. On the other hand, the 

 wild grape of the thickets of the hilly countries of 

 Tuscany and Borne, with its lower growth, somewhat 

 cottony leaves, and larger and more palatable fruit, 

 which " don't make a bad wine," as an Italian botan- 

 ist expressed himself to me, reminds us, notwithstand- 

 ing the smaller size of the leaves, of the downy forms 

 of Riparia, or perhaps of some JEstivalis. It was 

 known to the ancients as Labrusca, a name improp- 

 erly applied by science to an American species, and is 

 called by the natives to this day Brusca. The Grape- 

 vines of the countries south of the Caucasus Moun- 

 tains, the ancient Colchis, the reputed original home 



of these plants, greatly resemble the Italian plant just 

 described. 



The European Grape-vine is characterized by 

 smoothish, and, when young, shining, more or less 

 deeply, five or even seven-lobed leaves ; lobes pointed 

 and sharply toothed ; seeds mostly notched at the 

 upper end ; beak elongated ; raphe indistinct ; chalaza 

 broad, high up the seed. In some varieties the leaves 

 and branchlets are hairy and even downy when young ; 

 the seeds vary considerably in thickness and length, 

 less so in the shape of the raphe. It is well known 

 that the plant grows readily from cuttings, and that 

 it easily and almost invariably succumbs to the attacks 

 of the Phylloxera, which, accidentally introduced into 

 France, probably with American vines, has done such 

 immense damage in that country and in the rest of 

 Europe, probably since 1863 (though only discovered 

 as the virulent enemy in 1868), and is spreading more 

 and more, in California', where thus far the Vinifera 

 has been successfully cultivated, the insect also begins 

 to make its appearance in some localities. That it 

 was the cause of the complete failure in all the efforts 

 to plant the European vine east of the Bocky Mount- 

 ains, is now well known. 



13. Vitis Vtllfina, Linnseus (known also 

 as V. rotundifolia, Michaux), the Southern Fox 

 grape, Bullaee or Bullit grape, or Muscadine 

 of the Southern States, is entirely different 

 from all our other Grape-vines, and is men- 

 tioned here only to complete the list of our 

 species. It is too tender for our climate, and 

 never flowers or fruits here. It is found in 

 damp thickets or on mountain slopes, sone 

 times a low bush, and again climbing very 

 high, with entire, never forked, tendrils; 

 branchlets without any diaphragm (see fig. 37); 

 leaves small (two, or at most, three inches 

 wide), rounded, heart-shaped, firm and glossy, 

 dark green, smooth, or rarely slightly hairy 

 beneath, with coarse and large or broad and 

 bluntish teeth. The bunches are very small, 

 of few very large berries, which fall off singly, 

 like plums. The peculiar seed has been fig- 

 ured and described above (page 13, fig. 33). In 

 the South some of the varieties are highly 

 esteemed, especially the White Scuppernong. 



HYBRIDITY. 



Plants, which are so intimately related 

 among themselves, are apt to hybridize, and 

 their offspring is usually fertile, not like many 

 hybrid animals (the mule) or plants incapable 

 to propagate. We have a number of artificial 

 hybrids among Grape-vines, whose history is 

 well known, and which bear as well as the 

 true species, and their seeds are fertile. But 

 we also find other vines in the woods or in 

 vineyards, which, from their characters, we 

 must conclude to be spontaneous hybrids. 

 There is, of course, a good deal of experience 

 and judgment necessary to decide what may be 



