Note 134 — Chapter IV · SPECIES OF AMERICAN GRAPES.

The description of Vitis vulpina by Linnaeus is so meager, including the leaves only, that for many years botanists were in doubt as to the species intended. Muhlenberg was the single exception when he gave Linnaeus’ Vulpina and Michaux’s Cordifolia as synonymous. Whether he did this from knowledge, or whether it was by chance, it is impossible to say. He states no reasons and consequently received no following among other botanists. Elliott supposed that Linnaeus intended to describe the southern Rotundifolia and this view seems to have been generally accepted.

In the late eighties or early nineties, Planchon first, and later Britton, by referring to Linnaeus’ specimens, determined that the latter’s Vulpina was the same as Riparia, and in accordance with botanical rules, presented the name Vulpina as the correct name for this species. Bailey, however, states (Ev. Nat. Fr., 1898:102) that he found two specimens in the Linnaeus collection labeled Vulpina, one of which was the true Riparia and the other Cordifolia. Since a change of the name would bring confusion to more than ninety years of botanical and horticultural literature, it seems inadvisable to make one on such contradictory evidence.