Part 28 (1/2)

_Brush_: The end of the pedicel projecting into the fruit.

_Base_: The point of attachment of bunch or berry.

_Apex_: The point opposite the base.

_Bloom_: The powdery coating on the fruit.

_Pigment_: The coloring matter in the skin.

_Quality_: The combination of characters that makes grapes pleasant to the palate, sight, smell and touch.

_Foxiness_: The rancid taste and smell of some grapes which are similar to the effluvium of a fox.

Of all organs the fruit is most responsive to changed conditions and hence most variable. Yet the fruits furnish most valuable characters for determining both species and varieties. Size, shape, compactness and the number of cl.u.s.ters on a shoot must be noted. Coming to the berry, size, shape, color, bloom, adherence of stigma to the apex and adhesion of fruit to the pedicel are all of value. Difference in adherence of the skin to the pulp separates European from all American grapes. The thickness, toughness, flavor and pigment of the skin have more or less value. The color, firmness, juiciness, aroma and flavor of the flesh, as well as its adherence to seed and skin, are valuable marks in describing grapes. All species and varieties are well distinguished by the time of ripening and by keeping quality. The color of the juice is a plain and certain dividing line between some species and many varieties.

_The seed._

_Beak_: The narrow prolonged base of the seed.

_Hilum_: The scar left where the seed was attached to the seed-stalk.

_Chalaza_: The place where the seed-coats and kernel are connected.

_Raphe_: The line or ridge which runs from the hilum to the chalaza.

Seeds are accounted of much value in determining species. The size and weight of seed differ greatly in different species, as they do also in varieties of any one species. Thus, of native grapes, Labrusca has the largest and heaviest seeds and Vulpina has the smallest seed, while those of aestivalis are of medium size and weight. The shape and color of seed offer distinguis.h.i.+ng marks, while the size, shape and position of the raphe and chalaza furnish very certain marks of distinction in some species.

THE GENUS VITIS

The genus Vitis belongs to the vine family (Vitaceae) in which most botanists also put the wood-vines (Ampelopsis), of which Virginia creeper is the best-known plant. The genus Cissus, to which belong many southern climbers, is combined with Vitis by some botanists.

Vitis is separated from Ampelopsis and Cissus by marked differences in several organs, of which, horticulturally at least, those in the fruit best serve to distinguish the group. Species of Vitis, with possibly one or two exceptions, bear pulpy edible fruits; species of Ampelopsis and Cissus bear fruits with pulp so scant that the berries are inedible. Vitis is further distinguished as follows: The plants are climbing or trailing, rarely shrubby, with woody stems and mostly with coiling, naked-tipped tendrils. The leaves are simple, palmately lobed, round-dentate or heart-shaped-dentate. The stipules are small, falling early. The flowers are polygamo-dioecious (some plants with perfect flowers, others staminate with at most a rudimentary ovary), five-parted. The petals are separated only at the base and fall off without expanding. The disk is hypogynous with five nectariferous glands which are alternate with the stamens. The berry is globose or ovoid, few-seeded and pulpy. The seeds are pyriform and beak-like at the base.

SPECIES OF AMERICAN GRAPES

The number of species of grapes in the world depends on the arbitrary limits set for a species of this fruit, and knowledge of the genus is yet too meager to set these limits with certainty. Indeed, the men who have made grape species have seldom been able to outline the habitats of their groups with much certainty. In habitat, it should be said, grapes are confined almost wholly to temperate and subtropical regions. However, the grape-grower is not much concerned with species of grapes other than those that have horticultural value. Of these, in America, there are now ten more or less cultivated either for fruit or for stocks. The following descriptions of these ten species are adapted from the author's The Grapes of New York, published in 1908 by the state of New York (Chapter IV, pages 107-156).

CONSPECTUS OF CULTIVATED SPECIES OF VITIS

_A._ Skin of mature berry separating freely from the pulp.

_B._ Nodes without diaphragms; tendrils simple.

1. _V. rotundifolia._ 2. _V. Munsoniana._ _BB._ Nodes with diaphragms; tendrils forked.

_C._ Leaves and shoots glabrous at maturity and without bloom; tendrils intermittent.

_D._ Leaves thin, light, bright green, generally glabrous below at maturity except perhaps in the axils of the veins with a long or at least a prominent point and usually long and sharp teeth or the edge even-jagged.

_E._ Leaves broader than long; petiolar sinus usually wide and shallow.

3. _V. rupestris._ _EE._ Leaves ovate in outline; petiolar sinus usually medium to narrow.

4. _V. vulpina._ _DD._ Leaves thick, dull colored or grayish-green, often holding some close, dull p.u.b.escence below at maturity, shoots and leaves nearly always more or less p.u.b.escent when young; the teeth mostly short.

5. _V. cordifolia._ 6. _V. Berlandieri._ _CC._ Leaves rusty or white tomentose or glaucous blue below, thick or at least firm.

_D._ Leaves flocculent or cobwebby or glaucous below when fully grown.

7. _V. aestivalis._ 8. _V. bicolor._ _DD._ Leaves densely tomentose or felt-like beneath throughout the season; covering white or rusty white.

_E._ Tendrils intermittent.

9. _V. candicans._ _EE._ Tendrils mostly continuous.

10. _V. Labrusca._ _AA._ Skin and pulp of mature berry cohering. (Old World.) 11. _V. vinifera._