66o 



POSSIBILITIES OF OUR NATIVE GRAPES. 



ViTis SoLONis of Texas is allied to riparia. Among 

 many wild vines found and planted of this species, the 

 Hutchison, from Hutchison Co., Texas, is one of the 

 most prolific and vigorous of that very hardy, vigorous 

 species ; and quite a large number of hybrids have been 

 produced, a number quite promising. The vines are 

 beautiful, and very vigorous and hardy. The fruit is 

 very pure, juicy, sprightly, rich in sugar, tartaric acid 

 and coloring matter, making these excellent wine grapes, 

 and the basis for a noble family of grapes for the dry, 

 changeable climate of the western plains, 



Doan's Grape (f. Doaniana) . This species was first 

 collected by Judge J. Doan on Honey Creek, Greer Co., 

 Indian Terr. , about the year 1880. It was found so good 

 that it at once attracted the Judge's attention. He made 

 excellent wine of it, and regarded it in its best varieties 

 as equaling Ives and Concord in quality with no trace of 

 muskiness. Quite a number of varieties were marked 

 and transplanted into Judge D.'s grounds. Two varie- 

 ties found by the writer on Pease River, Wilbarger Co., 

 Texas, are growing in his grounds, and have born a good 

 fair-sized fruit — good for wine, but needs refining by; i 

 hybridization for table use. Doubtless there are wild - 

 varieties of good quality for table and market. Prof.' 

 H. E. Van Deman, U. S. Pomologist, to whom, I sent 

 clusters for illustration in my forthcoming nionograph, ■ 

 regarded the fruit as among the best of our-, native 

 grapes. No attempt has yet been made to hybridize it 

 with other species. 



I found this species also in Donley Co., Texas, and 

 have received herbarium specimens of it from near 

 Trinidad, N. M., and near Pecos City, Texas. Have 

 frequently heard of the species, with its usual excellence, 

 •n Crosby Co. and other parts of the Texas " Pan Han- 

 dle," where the temperature often sinks suddenly to 10° 

 or 15° below zero. Here is the basis of a group of fine 

 grapes for the western plains, north of where the vini- 

 fera varieties can endure. 



Canyon Grape [ V. Ari-onim). As the vinifera varie- 

 ties do finely in all the New Mexico and Arizona regions 

 where this is native, it is not regarded as of any value, 

 though the quality is pure and it is rich in sugar. There 

 is a smooth, glossy-leaved form of the species {T. Jrf^^o- 

 iiica, var. glahra^ Munson) found mostly from the regions 

 of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to that of Truxton, Arizona, 

 in the mountain gulches and canons, while the regular 

 cottony form is mostly found to the southward of the 

 A. & P. Ry. into Mexico. In parts of California where 

 the phylloxera invades the vineyards, this species was 

 used to some extent as stocks, but is not now regarded 

 with favor. It is dwarfish even here in northern Texas, 

 where most species grow with much vigor. It is here 

 much subject to downy mildew, and the fruit to black 

 rot. It probably has little or no value. The variety 

 glalira may yet prove distinct enough to take rank as a 

 species. 



Valley Grape ( r. Gtrdiana). This is the only wild spe- 

 cies in Californiasouth of the San Bernardino mountains 

 or of Tehichepa Pass, excepting that to some extent f". 



Arizonica is found in the regions west and north of Yuma, 

 but eastward of the Sierra Nevada extension into Mex- 

 ico. In all the valleys of southern California into Mex- 

 ico, south of National City, \'. Cirdiana is found in pro- 

 fusion growing to immense size, forming matted canopies 

 of grayish (being cottony) green leaves over the under- 

 brush and medium sized trees. 



The fruit is, when fully ripe, very sweet in taste, with 

 a sharp pungency in the skin, but analyses made of fruit 

 obtained at San Gabriel, by Prof. E. W. Hilgarde, 

 showed the species to be far less abundantly supplied 

 with sugar, tartaric acid and tannin (wine properties), 

 than is the fruit of V. Cnl?/oniiu>, of northern Cali- 

 fornia. 



The •■ Anaheim grape disease," which has for several 

 years been devasta'ing the vineyards of southern Cali- 

 fornia, also attacks and destroys these wild vines in 

 places, so that the species does not appear to possess any 

 very valuable properties, the roots being non-resistent 

 to phylloxera. 



Quite often wild hybrids of this species with V. z^ini- 

 'fera are found. One such growing in the grounds of 

 ■ Scott Chapman, San Gabriel, produced clusters often a 

 foot in length, until the Anaheim disease struck it. 



The Mission grape, in analysis, clearly shows the 

 characteristics of this species intermingled with vini- 

 fera. Here at Denison it is nearly impossible to keep 

 the vines alive, owing to mildew ; besides, they are very 

 sensitive to cold, much more so than F. vinifera. 



North California 'Wild Grape {V. Ca/iforniia). — 

 This species differs from /'. GirJiana, the southern 

 California species, chiefly in the leaves being quite 

 round in outline, almost as rounding as the rim of a 

 horse's hoof, and much less cottony, as is also the young 

 wood. The clusters are small to medium, very compact, 

 berries larger than V. Girdiana and covered with a dense, 

 white bloom ; seed larger, with chalaza very prominent ; 

 while in ]'. Girdiana it is depressed generally. The 

 berries are very seedy and skinny, but the flavor is 

 quite fine. The species is even more sensitive to mil- 

 dew than Girdiana, and endures very little cold. It 

 is of little or no value, as wherever it grows V. vinifera 

 does equally well, or better. It is found on the San 

 Joaquin, Sacramento, Santa Rosa and Napa streams, 

 and their tributaries in profusion. It is not found among 

 the coast mountains, nor on the east slope of the Sierra 

 Nevadas. It is found along the Klamath (California) 

 and Rogue river (Oregon) valleys abundantly, but this 

 last stream is the limit of its northern range. Even 

 here it grows vigorously and makes dense canopies over 

 underbrush and small trees, and is not a low scrubby 

 shrub as described for this region by Dr. Engelmann, in 

 Bushberg catalogue. That impression probably came 

 from Oregonians terming a species of barberry, "Ore- 

 gon grape." This is no grape at all. B. aqiiifolia (or 

 Alahonia ai/iilfolia by some botanists) is its Latin name. 

 From Rogue river north in Oregon and Washington, 

 and all east of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Nevada, 

 nearly all of Utah, all of Idaho and western Wyoming 



