\ 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
two great commercial grapes with the 
vigor of the wild aestivalis. 
Another of Munson’s hybrids, the R. 
W. Munson, is one of the most vigorous 
and healthy of all grapes in vine and fruit. 
The fruit is of good quality and stands 
shipping well. Unfortunately, however, 
the vine is self-sterile, and will not bear 
unless pollinated by other varieties bloom¬ 
ing at the same time. 
An especially interesting hybrid con¬ 
taining aestivalis blood is the Delaware, 
which is very good in quality, but lacks 
the resistance to disease that a grape 
should have. It is probably a natural hy¬ 
brid between aestivalis and vinifera. It 
is a very weak grower, and the fruit is 
small in size, but it is the standard in 
quality among the native grapes. It was 
used by Munson in breeding, and several 
grapes containing Delaware blood are be¬ 
ing grown in Florida. 
One of these, the Brilliant, is a cross 
between Lindley and Delaware, and con¬ 
sequently half vinifera, Y aestivalis and 
Y labrusca. It is a very early grape, and 
is being grown for home use from Flor¬ 
ida to New York and Texas. Another, 
the Headlight, is a cross between Moyer 
and Brilliant. Moyer is half Delaware, 
and Headlight is very much like Delaware 
in fruit, while the vine is quite vigorous 
and free from disease. It is the earliest 
good American grape, grows well in Flor¬ 
ida, and is fine for home use. It ripens 
in Florida in May, making the grape sea¬ 
son here a long one, and starting that long 
succession of home varieties which ends 
with the Muscadine in late August. 
Another variety of Munson’s introduc- 
129 
tion is the Ellen Scott, sometimes called 
the Florida Tokay. The late E. P. Pow¬ 
ell, a horticulturist well known to many of 
you, and a grape grower of much experi¬ 
ence, grew this grape for years at Sorren¬ 
to, Florida. He pronounced this grape 
the best in quality of any grape, and he 
was without doubt correct, as those of you 
who have had an opportunity to sample it 
know. It is a cross between two aesti- 
valis-vinifera hybrids, Armlong and Her- 
bemont. 
The Armlong mentioned above was also 
crossed with Malaga. Several grapes re¬ 
sulted from this cross, the Armalaga. Ro¬ 
naldo, and Edna. These are all fine white 
grapes of excellent quality, with fair dis¬ 
ease-resistance. It appears to be difficult 
to obtain a high disease-resistance and still 
keep high proportions of European blood. 
In closing this discussion of varieties, 
may I suggest that no variety yet pro¬ 
duced, not even the Thomas, is perfectly 
adapted to Florida conditions. This is 
naturally so, as none of them were pro¬ 
duced here. Without doubt some of the 
varieties discarded by Munson, or killed 
by that intemperate climate, would have 
been perfectly suited to Florida. At least 
one variety produced by Munson was kill¬ 
ed by the cold. This variety was called 
the DeSoto, and was a cross between the 
Muscadine grape of the Gulf States, and 
the Everbearing or Bird grape of South 
Florida. Who can doubt that it would 
grow throughout Florida? 
There are only two ways in which new 
varieties may be produced, by chance seed¬ 
lings, and bud variations (happy acci¬ 
dents), and by purposeful plant breeding 
