Note 82 — Chapter II · AMERICAN GRAPES

Nuttall says: “It is probable that hybrids betwixt the European Vine (Vitis vinifera) and those of the United States would better answer the variable climates of North America, than the unacclimated vine of Europe. When a portion of the same industry shall have been bestowed upon the cultivation of the native vines of America, which has for so many ages and by so many nations, been devoted to the amelioration of Vitis vinifera, we cannot imagine that the citizens of the United States will be longer indebted to Europe for the luxury of wine. It is not however in the wilds of uncultivated nature that we are to obtain vines worthy of cultivation. Were this the case, Europe would to the present have known no other Malus than the worthless austere crab, in place of the finest apple; no other Pyrus than the acerb and inedible Pyraster or stone Pear, from which cultivation has obtained all the other varieties. It is from seed that new and valuable varieties are invariably to be obtained. There is however at the present time, a variety of one of the native species cultivated under the name of ‘Bland’s grape’, a hybrid no way in my opinion inferior to some of the best European grapes.”