"The Eupatorium aya-pana may be distinguished from other species of this genus by the following character: Eupatorium foliis lanceolatis, integerrimis, inferioribus oppositis, superioribus alternis; calicibus subsimplicibus, multifloris."

What a valuable acquisition would these plants prove! Could not some means be fallen upon to effect their introduction? Perhaps it would be well to insert a short account of them in the different newspapers in the sea-port towns throughout the United States, requesting, at the same time, captains of vessels, and others, trading to any of the ports of SouthAmerica, to make inquiry after them, and, if possible, to procure some living plants. The person who shall be the means of introducing either of these plants, will probably do an essential service to his country.

ARTICLE III.

ACCOUNT of the SPECIES, HYBRIDS, and other VARIETIES of the VINE of NORTH-AMERICA. By Mr. WILLIAM BARTRAM, of Pennsylvania.

To the Editors of the Medical Repository.
GENTLEMEN,

The following observations upon the Vines of the United States were written by Mr. WILLIAM BARTRAM last spring (1802), in consequence of my determination, expressed to him, of publishing the natural history of the Vines of our country, and of a request that he would favour me with the result of his remarks on that interesting subject. It was my intention originally to use the valuable information as I should want it, in the progress of my undertaking; but I have deemed it best to publish the whole paper in your truly valuable work, in order to circulate speedily its valuable contents; particularly to give an opportunity of comparing the living vines with the botanical description during the present season, and to diffuse the knowledge of the erroneous and perplexing arrangement of LINNEUS and WALTER on this subject.

It is my present intention to publish the description of one "species of vine every year in Latin and in English, with a coloured plate, and I had made arrangements for the

publication of the first fascicle last year; but the very unfavourable season, which had prevented the ripening of the species (Bland's Grape) I had resolved first to describe, obliged me to defer the task until the present year, when I hope the weather will prove more favourable. Medical gentlemen, and others fond of natural history, and anxious to have the description of American vines and their classification completed, will have it much in their power to assist my undertaking. I have taken measures to have the Bull, or Rullet grape of Carolina and Georgia, sent me; but I shall nevertheless be much indebted for any specimens of the plant that may be transmitted.

Philadelphia, June 3, 1803.

Respectfully,

JAMES MEASE.

THE most those of the old continent, are, HE most obvious characters which distinguish the Grape

1. The berries of all the American species and varieties that I have seen, approach the figure of an oblate spheroid; that is, the poles are flattened, and the transverse diameter is longer than the polar: however, I have observed that Alexander's grape, and some of the bullet grapes, approach nearer to an oval or ellipsis, which is the figure of all foreign or European grapes that I have seen; viz. a prolate spheroid.-2. Most of the American species and varieties have a glaucous and yellowish pubescence on the under surface of their leaves.3. All that I have observed in the northern and eastern districts of the United States are polygamous; i. e. those vines which bear fruit (female) have hermaphrodite flowers (pentandria monogynia); but the males have only five stamina, without any female and are always barren. organ, would suppose, from WALTER so strongly marking this character as to induce him to place Vitis in the class Dioecia, when LINNEUS and the other European botanists had placed it in Pentandria (he himself being an European), that all the grapevines of the old continent are hermaphroditous and Pentandrian, I know not, from my own observation, whether the bull-grape of Carolina is hermaphroditous or dioecious, and therefore rest satisfied with Walter's assertion.

One

With regard to the vine of America, I find a great difficulty in discriminating the species from varieties or hybrids, which,

perhaps, may be partly accounted for from some of our vines being dioecious, and there being a much greater number of male vines than of fruit-bearing ones, whose farina fecundans, mixing with the air and winds, is carried to a great distance to the female organs of hermaphrodite flowers. I shall now give my opinion of the distinct species or established races from which all the varieties or mules have originated.

1st. The COMMON BLUE GRAPE, or BUNCH GRAPE, l'itis sylvestris, or V. occidentalis. This is the most common grape. The acini or berries are of the oblate figure, of va rious sizes on different plants, and of as various tastes. Some are sweet and pleasant enough, having a musky flavour. They are nearly as large as the Burgundy grape; are black when ripe, having a glaucous bloom, like the damson pium. The leaves of this species are large; their under surface covered with a clay-coloured down or pubescence. They are tri-lobed, each lobe subdivided or dentated. Some varieties have very deep sinuosities, almost touching the mid-rib.

2d. Fox-GRAPE, Vitis vulpina of Bartram, V. foliis cordatis subtrilobis, dentatis; subtus tomentosis, Linn. Spec. plant. V.vulpina dicta Virginiana alba; Pluckn. alm. 392. Vilis vulpina dicta acinis peramplis purpureis in racemo paucis, sapore fætido et ingrato præditis, cute crassa carnosa. Clayt. n. 696. The last part of the description is decisive; every word true when applied to our fox-grape of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Clayton's authority should be relied on, as he was a native of Virginia, spent his life there, and was an excellent botanist. The leaves of the fox-grape are large and lobated, not much unlike those of the common bunch grape, but not so deeply sinuated and toothed; their under surface thickly covered with a yellow pubescence or down; the fruit bunches short, having few acini or berries on them, but these few are large, and of an oblate figure. Some are as large as a musket-ball, and are of different sizes and colours; black, red, purple, green and white, when ripe. All possess a strong rancid smell and taste, have a thick coriacious skin, and a tough jelly-like pulp or tegument which encloses the seeds. Between this nucleus and the skin is a sweet lively juice, but a little acerb or stinging to the mouth if pressed hard in eating them. There is another property of this grape which alone is sufficient to prove it to be the Vit. vulpina, that is, the strong rancid smell of its ripe fruit, very like the effluvia arising from the body of the fox, which gave rise to the specific name of this vine, and not, as many have imagined, from its being the favourite food

of the animal; for the fox (at least the American species) seldom eats grapes or other fruit if he can get animal food.

The vines, though they make vigorous and extensive shoots, never mount high, but ramble over shrubs and low trees to a great distance from the original root. This appears to be the V. taurina of Walter, and the labrusca of Linnæus.

3d. BULL-GRAPE, Vitis taurina of Bartram, Vit. vulpina of Linnæus and Walter. This excellent grape is called by the inhabitants of Georgia, Carolina and Florida, Bull-grape.* The preceding species is called fox-grape from Pennsylvania to Florida. The bull-grape has a stiff, ligneous, smooth stem, of pale ash-colour, and mounts to a great height by climbing up trees. The leaves are cordated and serrated, thin, and both surfaces naked or smooth. The racimes or fruit bunches short, containing 15 or 20 grapes at a medium. The berries or acini are large, near the size of a rifle-ball; of a black colour when ripe; having a bluish nebule over them, which being rubbed off, they appear of a deep blood-colour. In figure they approach to an ellipsis or prolate spheroid: however, at a little distance they appear black and round. This species is deservedly esteemed the best native grape in America, and would make a rich and delicious wine. The juice is sweet, rich and lively, and there is but little of the tough jelly-like substance enclosing the seed. The skin of the grape is rather thick, yet there is a sweet melting pulp within, which mixes with the saccharine juice when eaten. This undoubtedly is the first American grape which merits attention and cultivation for wine. It thrives in every soil and situation from the sea-coast to the mountains; it even thrives and is fruitful when growing in the barren sand-hills of Carolina and Florida.

4th. WINTER-GRAPE, Vitis serotina. Cotyledon palmated. This is a vine remarkable for its sweet flowers. It mounts to the top of high trees; the stems and twigs more hard and ligneous than the bunch grape, to which I think it approaches the nearest. The leaves are small, cordated, smooth, thin and serrated. The fruit bunches branched, but the berries small and black, not so large as currants: the fruit not ripe till late in the autumn, and the juice extremely sour and ill-tasted, so

Mr. Bartram lately informed me that the word bull is an abbreviation of bullet; the grapes being so called from their approaching nearly the size of a bullet. The name "taurina" is, therefore, not the most proper.

J. M.

that even birds will not eat them till winter frosts have meliorated them.

I shall now mention the varieties that appear to me to have arisen from a commixture of the several species or races.

Alexander's or Tasker's grape is a large grape, black or blue, the size of the fruit of the Vit. vinifera of the old continent. The grapes approach to the elliptical figure. They are, when fully ripe, perfectly black, and as sweet as any grape. Many persons think them too luscious. Before they are quite ripe some think they possess a little of the stingy taste of the fox-grape, but my taste never could discover it. It has been supposed to be a hybrid between Vit. sylvestris (common bunch grape) and Vit. vinifera, because it was found on the rocky hills near the river Schuylkill, above the upper ferry, in the neighbourhood of an old vineyard of European grapes; but I believe it to be an American.

Bland's grape. This is an excellent grape. The bunches large, branched, and well shaped, six or eight inches in length. The berries large, about the size of the common white grape of Europe, and round or oblate; when perfectly ripe, of a dark purple or red wine colour; the juice sweet and lively, having a little musky flavour, with a small portion of an agreeable astringency, somewhat like our best bunch or wild grapes, though much sweeter than any of them. If this grape is what I take it to be, a genuine American, it is a hybrid or variety. It was found in Virginia, where it is called the Virginia muskadell, and sent to me by the late Col. Bland. This excellent grape bids the fairest, next to the bull-grape, to afford a good wine.

There seems to be no end to the varieties of Vit. sylvestris, or bunch grape, in size and taste of the fruit, as also in the leaves. There is a middle-sized round grape, called Raccoongrape, which appears to be much of the nature of the foxgrape: they are black when ripe; have much of the stingy taste and rancid smell of the fox-grape, and the tough jelly pulp that envelopes the seed; the skin thick; but they are not more than half the size of the fox-grape.

Thus it appears to me that we have in the United States four species of Vitis or grape vines, viz.

1. Vitis sylvestris, or Vit. Americana, or occidentalis, common bunch grape.

2. V. vulpina, fox-grape.

3. V. taurina, bullet-grape.

4. V. serotina, winter-grape, by some called Bermudian grape, and innumerable varieties and hybrids.