Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/186

 and other native Grapes, of which the following are the best. If our own advice could prevail, we would plant only Isabella and Catawba, or improved varieties therefrom.

Bland or Powell.—Color pale red; fruit round; bunches short, with two or three shoulders when well-grown. Flesh pulpy, with a half sweet, subacid flavor, and a little of the peculiar musky tinge, characteristic of the Fox Grape. Foliage pale green underneath, and more rounding than any of the following sorts.

Catawba—One of the best native Grapes; bunches rather regularly formed, with a few shoulders. Fruit round, of a bright red or coppery color when ripe. Flesh pulpy; rather juicy, and sweet when fully ripe, with a musky flavor. Foliage pale green, with a white down underneath, and more reflexed than that of the Isabella, which it very much resembles. This variety is most esteemed for wine, and when fully ripe, in my estimation, is the best of our native grapes for the table, though I cannot go so far as to say “it is luscious and high-flavored.”

Elsingborough, Elsenborough, Elsinburg.—This Grape is native of the sandy soils of New Jersey, where it is a considered the best of the American Grapes. Bunches small, compact and shouldered; berries small, jet black, round, with a thin skin. Flesh without pulp, sweet and well-flavored. Foliage coarse, deeply five-lobed. Wood slender, very hardy.

Isabella.—This variety is hardier than either of the former, and may be cultivated as far north as the St. Lawrence. Bunches long, tapering, with very few shoulders. Berries oval, jet black, with a fine bloom. Skin thick. Flesh a little pulpy, very sweet, with a little touch of the musky flavor. Ripe about the end of September, but improves by hanging on the vines till frost. I have repeatedly handed ripe fruit of this Grape, with that of the Black Hamburg, to individuals entirely unacquainted with the flavor of grapes, and they have generally pronounced the Isabella the best and sweetest Grape