-2- 



the people pick the grapes half ripe, add too rauch water and sugar, and thereby 

 spoil the drink. I am of the definite conviction that if these and other naturally 

 sweet kinds from Texas were cultivated they would he much hetter suited than the 

 fox grapes: Agawam , Salem , Concord, Hartfords Prolific , B-^rry, Merrimac - and the 

 Catawba , for wine culture. Other than the Mountain grape which climhs there also 

 grows in Cibolo and around here another sweet grape which Scheele I helieve in 

 Linnaea: named it Vitis rupestris. This grows only in bush form, does not climh 

 and has a blue grape, which is never tightly closed but is very sweet, and does not 

 have a bitter after-taste in the thin skin. The 3rd sweet variety is the Postoak 

 grape which I know only from hearsay. Finally there was also discovered up here, in 

 a creek above the stream Llano, a Single large vine which is said to have large blue 

 grapes, completely sweet and without a bitter taste in the skin. For 2 years I have 

 been hunting for these grapes and can never obtain them ripe, in order to test if it 

 is correct, what the laymen say. Since also this year it was not possible to obtain 

 grapes, this Winter I will collect cuttings in quantity and will let them take root 

 with watering. The best would be to send you this winter cuttings of Vitis Monticola , 

 Vitis rupestris and of the large grape from the Llano and to induct Mr. Lindheimer 

 to provide you with Postoak grapes from the lower country. 



Vitis Aestivalis also occurs here with sweet quite large berries, but it is 

 relatively infrequent. 



0f Vitis Monticola I will dry between blotting naper and send you a piece of 

 branch with leaves. I have here a specimen of He^peraloe Yuccaefolia (or near 



relative) with 3 seed-capsules attached, which I want to send to you toecether with 



and plant. Should I send them as they are now or let the seed car>sules first 



dry on the stem? I had flowers and seed capsules on them at the same time. m he 

 Hesperaloe seems to sprout flower stems not until the 3rd year and it anyway frro^s 

 very slowly. The seed-capsules are still rreen* Is it better to ^tsv the plant with 

 roots only in stiff t>aper, or can one send them hy mail in a closed metal hox, without 

 danger of them getting mouldy? 



Scheele' s 3ophora speciosa which you mentioned in Mis. S ophora semrervlnens , 

 was described by Berlandier long before Scheele, as Calia erythro r-erm^ must there for 

 be called. Sophora crythrosperma » Berliandier in Memorias de la Commission de Cimites 

 par. I Historia Natural. Botanica par L. Berlandier Matamoros de Tamaalipes I832. 



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