What is the Situation with Bla ck Jack and several other v^rieties of 

 oak trees, which bloom in one year and the fruit does not develop unti! the 

 following year, from the preceding year's bloom. This fact often becomes the 

 subject of astonishment and argument among the non-botanists; and in the few 

 botanical works that are available here, we could find nothing about this 

 atriking phenomenon? 



My branches with leaves of Vitis monticola unfortunately have crumbled 

 to pieces because it was too dry and hot. How does one preserve and ship 

 them best? 



Other than the usual blue of Vitis monticola , not very seldom there also 

 occur white or green varieties, as also there are a light or white variety of 

 Mustang grape and also a white variety of the common wild blackberry. The 

 true Vitis aectivalis I have found a few times in individual specimens in the 

 vicinity of my farm Comanchespring on the head of the Salado creek, Bexar Co., 

 with large, beautiful, thin-skinned, sweet berries, which have either golden- 

 yellow with red cheeks or light reddish not densely compact grapes. The 

 berries were larger than most V. aec t ivalis large stemmed American grapes. 

 I marked the red one with bright clotbs but could not find it again in winter. 

 In general Vitis Aectivalis is not at all imcommon in Texas. T am of the oninion 

 that many of the European grapes could be grown in Texas, n^mely the large 

 Malaga grape, the from Tyrol *nd many others and especially those 



grafted on native wild ones, whose roots "ntbstand the Phylloxera. At least the 

 attempt should be made because Texas is a wine country co^me il faut, nrovided 

 that one has water available. Also the California grapes, namely the well-kno^n 

 Mission grape, also the Parras grape, which no doubt is somewhat different from 

 tne "El Paso , should do well here. Should it not be possible to obtain the 

 California grapes from the Patent Office? 



On the Concho, on the Dover and Good Spring Creek (tributaries of Concho 

 river) a black currant grows in large masses, which is said to taste exactly 

 like the black English currant. Is this known to you? Those which I had 

 planted both died during the drouth last year. However I will shortly again 

 receive fresh specimens from the Concho. Should I send you some of them? 



Since the domestic (tarne) currants do not thrive in Texas because of the 

 heat and dryness, I will grow this wild black currant and, instead of the red 

 one, one can use the fruits of Berberis trifoliolata , which is native here and 

 produces copiously. In this letter I am sending you some seed of the ornamental 

 shrub "Mimosa Mexicana" , which is mentioned in the local catalogues. It must be 

 described in Emory's Boundary Survey and probably has a different botanical name. 



