Note 38 — Chapter II · AMERICAN GRAPES

There is a wild grape vine (probably Vitis aestivalis) near Daphne, Alabama, on the shores of Mobile Bay, known as the “General Jackson vine” because of General Jackson having camped under it during the war with the Seminole Indians in 1817-18, which for age and size is truly remarkable. Mr. E. Q. Norton of Daphne writes of this vine as follows: “There is little known regarding the Jackson grape vine beyond the fact that the oldest man living here when I came here—20 years ago—told me that the Indians told him when he came here as a boy—90 years ago—that the vine was at that time an old one, which had been growing longer than any of them could remember. It was 27 inches through the trunk, four feet above the ground, when I measured it ten years since, and the vines were running over the surrounding trees for many rods. The grapes were very small, quite hard and not very juicy.”