Loyal Valley, Tex. 

 January 26, l880 



Dear Dr. Engelmann] 



Your two letters of Oct. 22 and Jan, 15 still lay betöre me for answering, 

 It is my intention first to still make several shipments anickly after e^ch 

 other, of such plants which perhaps would be of interest to you, and only then 

 give notes of all of my amateur notes. Ho^ever the shipments are ^oinp: piece- 

 meal (incomplete and in inferior specimens) because I am always delayed through 

 other accumulated business matters, in making a complete shipment, and have to 

 rely mostly on stränge people. 



At the same time with the Vitis monticola , whose rooted vine did not appear 

 to me to have enough roots and whose cuttings appeared hard and dry, notwith- 

 standing that they were cut from the main stem just before shipment, — I sent 

 cuttings of the only wild grape which grows above the Llano and is alleged to 

 have perfectly sweet, f ine-tasting, dark blue large-berried fruit, For 3 years 

 I have unsuccessfully tried to obtain ripe fruit of it, because I do not trust 

 the layman's reports about the sweetness, thin skin and lack of astringent taste 

 of the skin. Now if the cuttings grow, we can hopefully find out from you what 

 it is. Yesterday I sent a small package to you with El Paso (a small 2 year old 

 rooted vine and cuttings), in order that you may convince yourself if it can be 

 grown to Vitis vinifera or not. Accordins- to the opinion here the El Paso and 

 Parras Rubia grapes were originally imported from Spain and since more than 

 100 years have been naturalized here. There are red and white El Pasos . Those 

 that I have raised for years (red) grew as cuttings here which were sent by mail 

 direct from El Paso and bear a grape which has no wild, in the skin astringent 

 foxy taste or smell, but tastes like a fine European table e-rape. The berries 

 however are of medium size, loosely placed, gr^pe shouldered?, sometimes 1 foot 

 long. Yes and with El Paso they should be Phyl lorera-free and not subject to 

 dry rot. Here in some localities or in very dry years they sometimes suffer 

 from dry rot. Of all varieties of grapes which are gro-*n here the El P^>so 

 grows fastest and forms quite a thick stem even in ? years, and in one year 

 sprouts shoots 20 feet long. In New Mexico and also on the Mexican border 

 the grapes are grown mostly without po 1 es or trellises. A vineyard there for 

 looks like a fruit orchard, in that the plants form strait stems 2 1/2 to 

 3 1/2 feet high and 2-4 inches thick, which each year are cut back to the 

 same height, and then again form a complete bush or crown of new shoots, 

 under which the grapes hang wreath-like and 



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