Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/352

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348
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Shoot of Vitis rotundifolia, the Scuppernong or Southern Fox Grape.

characters of Vitis vinifera more often appear in varieties arising as primary hybrids between the vinifera grapes and the native species, and the weaknesses of the Europeans, which prevent their cultivation in America, crop out. Hybrids in which the vinifera blood is more attenuated, as secondary or tertiary crosses, give better results.

Several secondary hybrids now rank among the best of the cultivated grapes. Examples are the Brighton and the Diamond. The first is a cross between Diana-Hamburg, a hybrid of a vinifera and a labrusca, crossed, in its turn, with the Concord, a labrusca; the second is a cross between Iona, also a hybrid of a vinifera, and a labrusca crossed with the Concord. Both were grown from seed planted by Jacob Moore, of Brighton, New York, in 1870. The Brighton was the first secondary hybrid to attract the attention of grape-breeders and its advent marked an important step in breeding grapes.

The signal successes achieved by the hybridizers of the European grape with the native species quickly led to similar amalgamations among the American species. Jacob Rommel, of Morrison, Missouri, beginning work about 1860, hybridized the labrusca and riparia grapes