NEw York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 307 
the Concord, Moore Early, Niagara, and many others. The vines 
grow quite vigorously in our northern states but sometimes winter 
kill. Practically none of them flourish further south where the 
summers are longer and the sunshine more intense. 
The Riparia, or River Bank grape, is very widely distributed, 
growing almost all over the United States, and is readily recognized 
by its thin, almost translucent, leaves, small canes and small dark 
blue or black berries heavily covered with bloom. None of the 
pure Riparias are good table grapes but many of them make good 
wine. In spite of their sour taste the wine maker finds that their 
juice contains more sugar than the sweeter tasting Labrusca. 
The Aestivalis, or Summer grape, as it is commonly called, is like 
the last in that no varieties which are purely of this species are 
popular with the public for eating. The juice makes a good wine 
and the varieties generally are somewhat stronger growing than 
those of the Riparia class. One of the great advantages of varieties 
of this species is that the leaves will not sunburn, a point, however, 
of practically no importance to the New York grower. 
Besides these three American species there is the Vitis vinifera, or 
European grape. This species, having been cultivated for thousands 
of years, furnishes both wine and table grapes. Unfortunately, 
however, owing to attacks of various mildews and insects, the 
European grape can not be grown successfully east of the Rocky 
mountains in North America. It is frequently crossed with Ameri- 
can species to improve their quality, usually, however, with the 
effect of making them less able to resist disease. Thus it will be 
seen that the question of the species of any variety of grape is a 
very important one and of horticultural as well as of-botanical in- 
terest. No description of a variety of grape is considered complete 
to-day unless the species is given. 
TESTING SEEDLING GRAPES. 
In connection with this work seedlings were frequently raised, as: 
_it was found that in many cases some light could be thrown on the 
probable parentage, and hence species of a grape, by planting its 
seeds, the resulting seedlings frequently reverting to ancestral types. 
In the course of a few years many thousands of seedlings were 
raised. This was not wholly for diagnostic purposes, but also in 
the hopes of originating new varieties of value, or at least of finding 
how such varieties might be produced. - 
Most originators of varieties of grapes have thought too much 
