6 BULLETIN 856, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tribution accounts for the occasional older vines of the variety 
found in California. 
Repeated unsuccessful attempts have been made to grow currant 
grapes in this country. 
Vines of the Zante or Corinth currant were imported from France 
as early as 1854 by the Patent Office and distributed principally in 
the Middle and Western States. As the root louse: of the grapevine 
is an insect which is indigenous in the States east of the Rocky 
Mountains and as the currant grapes, like all varieties of the Vinifera 
species when they are not grafted on resistant stocks, can not resist 
the attack of this pest, they were probably soon killed by it. ; 
On September 27, 1861, Col. Agostin Haraszthy, of Sonoma, Calif., 
imported the White and Red Corinth varieties from the Crimea. 
Small plantings of currant grapes are found in different parts of 
California, and while a few growers have succeeded in getting fair 
crops of the White Corinth, no one appears to have been able to fruit 
successfully the superior dark-colored variety from which the cur- 
rants of commerce are produced. : 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PANARITI GRAPE. 
Because of the important part it is possible that the Panariti 
variety may have in the viticulture of this country the following 
rather detailed description of it is given: 
Vine a vigorous, dense, slightly spreading grower. Young wood medium 
slender, round; internodes medium, long, thin; nodes slightly enlarged; buds 
prominent, pointed, starting early; pith large, discontinuous at diaphragm; 
tendrils intermittent, forked; canes light brown, striped, smooth; growing tips 
reddish and hairy. Leaf medium size, oblong, cordate, five lobed, margin ser- 
rate; petiolar sinuses, deep, narrow, usually overlapping; upper leaf surface 
dark green with light-colored veins; lower surface lighter green, slightly 
pubescent ;. petiole medium slender, slightly enlarged at base. 
Blossom entire, small, opens early, stamens upright, longer than pistil. Bloom- 
ing period medium, blossoms abundant. 
Cluster on ringed vines medium compact, cylindrical, medium length, narrow, 
prominently shouldered, often winged. Berries small, usually less than one- 
fourth of an inch in diameter, adhering well, globose, color grizzly to black, 
with light-colored bloom, surface smooth; skin thin, tender; flesh pearly white, 
soft, juicy. seedless. Flavor rich, characteristic, very high in sugar, from 
28.5° to 32.2° Balling seale, and relatively high, from 0.6600 to 0.8725, in acid 
as tartaric (grams per 100 c. c.). Excellent in quality, both as a fresh fruit 
and dried. Ripens very early, from July 15 to August 15. (PI. III.) Usually 
produces a very light second crop of small, round, straggling clusters of seeded 
berries, much larger but in quaiity inferior to those of the first crop. 
Plate II, showing average clusters of the specially introduced 
slack Corinth variety from Panariti, Greece, and a cluster each of 
Red Corinth and White Corinth grapes, will serve e better to bring 
1Phylloxera vastatriz. 
