272 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 
[September i, 1877. 
THE 
darters’ djkmtick. 
SATURDAY, \ SEPTEMBER i, 1877. 
APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 
T HE reappearance of the Culford Vine 
Sport— or, as it has facetiously been 
termed, the Gulford apparition— induces us to 
advert once more to the subject. When it was 
formerly under discussion we laboured under 
the disadvantage of not having ourselves seen 
the sportive Vine, and we could only discuss 
the matter on general principles, and reason 
from the analogy afforded by other and not in- 
frequent examples of a similar, or supposed 
similar, character. Lately, however, we had an 
opportunity of inspecting this now famous Vine, 
of comparing it with other rods of Trebbiano and 
Golden Champion growing in the same and in 
different houses ; and lastly, thanks to Mr. 
Grieve, -we have had the opportunity of care- 
fully comparing the foliage and berries of the 
sport with those of the Vines just mentioned. 
We have thus been enabled to arrive at some 
conclusions, which we propose to lay before 
our readers, byt in no dogmatic or ex cathedrd 
spirit. The facts observed admit of more than 
one interpretation ; and, although we have our 
own views as to which is the more probable, 
yet so little i s defi nitely and precisely known as 
to the causes of these phenomena, that we are 
quite disposed to consider the matter as an open 
question. 
The history of the sport in question is now 
pretty widely known to Grape growers. It has 
been given and discussed in several of the gar- 
dening periodicals, and only a short time since 
Mr. Grieve briefly recapitulated in our own 
columns the history of the appearances pre- 
sented (see Gar denerd Chronicle , August 18, 
1877, p. 213,’ fig. 46). It is therefore not neces- 
sary to dwell on this part of the subject. We 
propose to confine ourselves to a brief mention 
of what we ourselves observed on a personal 
inspection of the Vine in question a few days 
since, to the results of the comparison we were 
enabled to make on the spot between the 
several Vines named, and of the examination of 
the materials we were allowed by Mr. Grieve 
to bring away with us; Without going into 
needless minutiae it may suffice to say that the 
parent rod of the Trebbiano from which the 
sport which has given rise to 7 this discussion 
emerges is trained in the usual way under the 
glass of a lean-to vinery, and that about the 
middle of its length it gives off three fruit bear- 
ing spurs which we shall have to refer to specially. 
Below these three on either side of the rod are 
borne some six or eight bunches of Trebbiano, 
about three parts ripe at the time of our visit. 
It is then to three special shoots or spurs 
that we desire to draw attention. The lower- 
most of the three is the original one which 
in the year 1874 bore the bunch of Golden 
Champion, or one which was so like Golden 
Champion as to be taken for it by experienced 
Grape growers and amateurs, of whose good 
faith and competence not a shadow of doubt 
can possibly be entertained. The base of this 
spur still bears the label which, as we were in- 
formed, was attached to it by Dr. HOGG on the 
occasion of his visit. At the present time this 
shoot bears leaves which are indistinguishable 
from those of Trebbiano, but the bunch and its 
constituent berries, in form, in size, in stage of 
maturity, in tendency to spot, are unquestion- 
ably much more like those of true Golden 
Champion, growing close by in the same house, 
than they are those of the Trebbiano produced 
on the same rod, even when all due allowance 
is made, as it should be, for variation in indi- 
vidual berries. Incidentally, it may be re- 
marked that the individual berries of Golden 
Champion exhibit a considerable range of varia- 
tion. The bunch in question, as we learn from 
Mr. Grieve, measures 10 inches across the 
shoulders and 10 inches in length, exclusive of 
the stalk. The berries, at the time of our visit, 
were not quite ripe, and had not yet the pale 
amber tint of other Golden Champions in the 
same house. This may to some extent be attri- 
buted to the circumstance that the sport occu- 
pies a more shaded position than the fruit of the 
Champion rod, which grows close to the light 
at one end of the house. We may assume, how- 
ever, that the general appearance of the sport is 
much the same as it was in 1874 ; indeed, such 
is the testimony of Mr. Grieve himself, and of 
others who have seen it in both years. 
Next we come to the middle bunch of the 
three to which we desire to call attention. This 
is borne on the same side of the main rod, and 
on the next spur but one above the first men- 
tioned. The leaves on this spur are in all 
essentials like those of Trebbiano and not those 
of the Golden Champion. The bunch measures 
9 inches across the shoulder, and is 8 inches 
long, and its constituent berries, as compared 
with those of adjacent Trebbiano and Golden 
Champion respectively, are distinctly inter- 
mediate in character. They are smaller than 
Golden Champion and larger than Trebbiano, 
and in all ways appear to hold a middle position 
between the two. It may be mentioned that 
the largest bunch of Trebbiano proper measures 
7 inches across the shoulder by 12 inches in 
length. We look upon the production of this 
intermediate bunch as a most important link in 
the evidence, though somewhat singularly Mr. 
Grieve made no mention of it in his last 
letter, and we presume a similar one was not 
produced on former occasions. 
The third or topmost bunch on the same side 
as the two before mentioned’ hardly deserves 
notice, except for the fact that the terminal 
berry is more like one of Golden Champion 
than of the Trebbiano. On the other hand, 
it must be borne in mind that the terminal 
berry of the bunch is very often larger and of a 
different shape from the rest, the difference 
frequently being consequent upon a fusion or 
growing together, Siamese-twin fashion, of two 
or more berries. This did not appear to be the 
case in the bunch under consideration, whose 
terminal berry seemed to have, as we have 
said, a good deal of the Golden Champion 
character, and will probably develope still more 
in this direction as it ripens. We think, then, 
that we are justified in stating that this third 
bunch presents, like the two lower ones next 
next adjacent to it, but to a much smaller 
extent, the characteristics of Golden Champion. 
Speaking, therefore, in general terms of the 
Vine in its present state, it may be stated, 1st, 
that the foliage on all three of these spurs is 
indistinguishable Irom that of Trebbiano 
(except in one minor point to be hereafter 
mentioned) ; 2d, that the bunch of the lowermost 
spur resembles that of Golden Champion very 
closely, indeed so much so that, were it not that 
the berries are not so mature as those on the 
Golden Champion adjoining, we should have 
had no hesitation in pronouncing them -iden- 
tical ; 3d, that the middle bunch of the three 
is intermediate between Trebbiano and 
Golden Champion ; and, 4th, that the third 
bunch, while almost entirely of Trebbiano 
character, has its terminal berry of* a different 
shape and size to the rest, and in this point 
resembles Golden Champion. 
We have now to mention some points of dis- 
tinction between the foliage of Golden Champion 
and that of Trebbiano. Of course a large 
allowance must be made for variations in size, 
colour, hairiness, &c., according to the pos tion 
of the leaves on the rod, and other circum- 
stances so familiar that we need not take up 
time by further alluding to them. Setting aside 
these variations, there appear to, us from the 
comparisons we have been enabled to make, 
two special points in which a difference is 
clearly observable between the foliage of 
Trebbiano and Golden Champion. In Golden 
Champion, as a rule, the leaf-stalk is rather 
shorter in proportion to the leaf-blade than it is 
in Trebbiano, and the lobes of the leaf, as well 
as the smaller toothings of the margin, are 
narrower and more sharply pointed in the 
Champion than they are in Trebbiano. In 
other words, the teeth of the leaf in the Cham- 
pion are deltoid A or triangular, with nearly 
straight sides, while in the Trebbiano the teeth are 
broader and with curved sides, so that they have 
an egg-shaped, pointed outline. As we have said, 
the leaves on the sporting spurs appear to us — 
regard being paid to individual variation — to be 
precisely those of Trebbiano, with the minor 
exception that in the relative length of the leaf- 
stalk and of the blade they approximate more 
nearly to the character presented by the Cham- 
pion. As to the bunches and berries, speaking 
now entirely from those to be seen in the same 
house at Culford, we may say that Golden 
Champion, as compared with Trebbiano, has 
larger bunches with wider shoulders, the indi- 
vidual berries are also larger, have stouter foot- 
stalks, ripen earlier, are more amber-coloured, 
and have the constitutional peculiarity, of 
spotting. 
We are quite well aware how wide a margin 
must be left for natural variation according to 
circumstaif^es. The variation in size and form 
of Grapes in the same bunch is, of course, a 
matter of very frequent observation. We can 
also quite well understand how even an expert 
may be deceived in certain cases by an un- 
usually fine or an unusually poor condition of a 
particular Vine, and so be led to identify it 
wrongly ; but that is a very different case to the 
production of one or more sports on a rod bear- 
ing several normal bunches. 
The conclusions that we have arrived at, 
therefore, are that the Culford sport— we may 
now say sports — are real, and not fanciful ; and 
that in the character of the bunches and berries 
one of them shows the characteristics of Golden 
Champion to such an extent as to justify the 
observer in pronouncing it to be all but, if not 
wholly, identical, the differences now observ- 
able in size of berry and period of ripening 
between Trebbiano and the sport being trifling. 
After all, it is to us surprising that this case 
should have been received with so much in- 
credulity. One would think analogous cases 
had never been noted, that the Cytisus Adami 
was unknown, that Peaches and Nectarines had 
never been seen on the same bough, and that 
“ sporting ” or bud variation, in fact, was an un- 
known phenomenon. The special interest in the 
present case arises from the fact that the rod of 
Golden Champion had been cut away before the 
appearance of the sport. 
The question then becomes narrowed to this 
— are the “ sports now existing on this Vine the 
result of previous inoculation with Champion 
sap or with Champion pollen, or are they 
altogether independent of Champion influence ? 
Seeing how strikingly the Champion charac- 
teristics are reproduced in bunch and berry, 
we can but conclude that they have been so 
to speak Championised, and that the case 
is one of those exceptional instances where 
graft hybridisation has been brought about. 
