438 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Decembek, 
grape for ■n'liicU Tve have uot now space. It 
has beeu kuowu for some twenty years as a 
healthy vine, a good grower, and an abundant 
bearer. Bunches somewhat after the style of 
the Isabella, but longer. Fruit very sweet and 
decidedly foxy. An indifferent table grape, but 
one that promises to become of the flrst import- 
ance to the ■wine grower. The vine propagates 
ea.?ily, and the young plants, of which we have 
seen some thousands, sliow a remarkable vigor. 
Allen's Ui/brtd.—Tho reports of this grape the 
present year are 
generally favor- 
able. One culti- 
vator tells lis that 
liis returns receiv- 
ed for those sent 
to market -were 
sixty cents per 
lb. at wholesale. 
Seeclliiigs. — We 
hear but little of 
the new seedlings 
of the past two 
years. New " hy- 
brids" and other 
seedlings that at- 
tracted some at- 
tention, do not 
seem to have fruit- 
ed this year. Le?s 
than the usual 
number of "new 
grapes" have been 
sent us, and some 
that we have had, 
have been so poor 
that our advice 
lias beeu, to root 
up the vine at 
once, and put 
■iomething toler- 
able in its place. 
We have had to 
pay the express 
charges on sev- 
eral parcels of 
grapes that no 
one, with a civil- 
ized nose, could 
tolerate in the 
same room with 
liim. If persons 
will send these 
wild foxy things, 
they should at 
least put them 
here -without cost 
to us. Every now 
and then a foreign grape turns up, the fruit of 
which, in a favorable spot, will mature. Mr. Geo. 
Van Xest, of Pluckamin, X. .1., sent us a cluster 
of a grape of this kind, which was well ripened, 
and sn like a Golden Ciiasselas, as not to be 
readily distinguished from it. Our friend " Hor- 
ticola," of Hoboken, N. J., has raised a seedling 
from a Crimean grape, that in his grounds is 
remarkably healthy, and which bears most ex- 
cellent fruit. We hope that it may do well 
elsewhere. It is not impossible that we may yet 
get a seedling of the European vine that shall 
be perfectly hardy in our climate. The so-called 
Allen's Hybrid is tolerably hardy — and this is 
1)3' most good judges considered as purely a 
foreigner. We are as yet very skeptical on the 
subject of hybrids; ?!. c, crosses between the 
European and any of our grapes. We know 
that crosses of varieties have been made, and 
while we do not by any means say that a liy- 
brid is impossible, we can say that we have yet 
to sec a grape that unmistakably gives evidences 
of being a hybrid. 
■ I ^^1^- — I fc 
The Mountain Ashes. 
Among the ornamental trees useful for the 
brilliancy of their fruits in autumn, the ditferent 
species and varieties of the Jlountain Ash hold 
the first rank. Aside from their showy ripe 
fruit, the trees are pleasing in shape, have good 
^V^ 
OAK-IEAVED MOtlNTAIN ASH. 
foliage, and a clean and healthy look. They 
are not in any way related to the Ash-tree, but 
probably obtained their popular name from 
some resemblance in foliage to the Ash. 
They belong to the genus Pyrn>!, whicli includes 
the apple and pear; and though their fruit is 
very small, borne in clusters, and the leaves are 
quite tmlike those of the apple and pear, yet the 
botanical characters of the flowers and fruit 
agree so well, that botanists very properly put 
them all in the same genus. 
The American Mountain Ash, (Pynin Ameri- 
cana), is quite common in the mountainous dis- 
tricts at the North. It grows 1.5 or 20 feet high, 
and is much more robust in cultivation than in 
its wild state. Both this and the European 
Mountain Ash, or Rowan-tree, are common in 
cultivation, and the two are so much alike tliat 
some botanists have regarded the American as 
a mere variety of the European tree; but the 
best authorities keep them as distinct species. 
The European Mountain Ash, (Pt/rti^ aucupa- 
riii), has larger fruit than ours, and the divisions 
of its leaves are shorter, blunter, and of a paler 
color. We have in the Middle States a variety 
of the American tree as distinct from the usual 
form as that is from the European ; it is Ivnown 
as the Small-fruited Mountain Ash; it forms a 
slirub not over 10 feet high, with fruit uot larger 
than pepper-corns, and sometimes in cultivation. 
In the city of Rochester we have noticed that 
what is known as 
the Oak-leaved 
Mountain Ash, is 
a favorite orna- 
mental tree. It 
has a very erect 
habit of growth, 
forms a compact 
head, has a robust 
and dark-green To- 
liage, and pro- 
duces an abun- 
dance of brilliant 
scarlet berries. 
We give an en- 
graving showing 
the shape of the 
leaf, from siieci- 
inons obtained at 
tlie nurseries of 
Frost & Co., Ro- 
ilioster. Wejudgp 
that this is what 
has been called 
PyriisjnnnatifiiJa, 
and is considered 
by some as a gar- 
den hybrid. Mr. 
Barry informed us 
that they import- 
ed it from Scot- 
land, many years 
ago, under the 
name of P. quer- 
Hfolia, but that 
now the name 
seems to be drop- 
ped from the for- 
eign catalogues. 
Whatever may be 
its proper botani- 
cal relations. Oak- 
leaved Mountain 
Ash is a suffici- 
ently distinctive 
name for one of 
tlic most beautiftil 
of our ornamen- 
tal trees, and one that we hope to see more 
widely known and cultivated than it now is. 
Mountain Ashes are raised from seed, and 
particular varieties are continued by grafting. 
The seeds remain in the ground over one year 
before they germinate, and it is necessary to keep 
them in a rotting heap for a year. The berries 
are mixed with light soil and spread in a layer, 
10 or 12 inches in thickness; this is covered 
with some 3 inches of sand, and allowed to re- 
main until the next spring, when they are sown 
in beds. The plants appear the following spring. 
The Greeley Grape Prize. 
— « — 
In the autumn of 1864, the Hon. Horace 
Greeley offered a prize of |100 for the variety of 
grape best suited to general culture, tlie award 
to be made by a committee of the American In- 
stitute. At the fruit exhibition of the Institute 
