CHAPTER II. 



The Vine belongs to the natural order, Sarmentosm, a family of 

 plants with stem-like branches. The class is pentandria monogynia ; 

 leaves alternate, palmated, five lobed, more or less distinctly incised 

 or dentated : green or blueish ; with flowers in clusters, opposite to 

 the leaves, supported by a common peduncle, which turns a to tendril 

 if the blossom fails. The flowers are small, greenish ; the calyx very 

 small, whole and five toothed ; the corolla is formed of five deciduous 

 petals, sometimes united together at their summits like a crown, and 

 shed without being disunited. The stamens are five in number, oppo- 

 site to the petals ; their filaments subulate ( bent like an awl ) and sup- 

 porting simple anthers. No style ; stigmata sessile ( close set ) in a 

 five-chambered ovary. This ovary becomes a round or oval berry, 

 juicy, unilocular when ripe, with five stony seeds, two, three, or four 

 of which are abortive . 



The fruit is only borne on the shoots of the year, and generally at 

 the fifth, sixth and seventh joint ; so that if the seventh joint has made 

 its appearance without sign of fruit, none need be expected from that 

 shoot. 



The species or varieties of the vine are very numerous. Their 

 names must long remain obscure and empirical, in a measure ; for the 

 labor of arranging them in some regular nomenclature is greater than 

 can be imagined ; it can only be accomplished by the concurrence of 

 agricultural societies. It has been attempted for the vineyard of Ar- 

 bois ( Jura ) by Dumont, corresponding member of the Linnaean Soci- 

 ety of Paris ; and in Spain for the Vines of Andalusia, by a distin- 

 guished and learned naturalist, Dn. Simon Rojas Clemente ; their 

 works only convince us how long we must be condemned to wait for 

 the completion of this interesting portion of the history of the Vine. 

 The same names are attached frequently to distinct varieties ; and 

 often, the one variety is so altered or detoriated by different modes of 

 cultivation, soil and exposures, that it cannot be known by the name. 

 To obtain a clear summary of these varieties some certain rules or 



