Fruit ripens slightly before Concord, keeps and ships well. Clusters medium to large, rather short and broad, tapering to cylindrical, frequently heavily single-shouldered, compact; peduncle short to medium, thick; pedicel medium to short, thick, covered with few small warts, enlarged at point of attachment to berry; brush short, pale green. Berries large to medium, roundish, very dark red, dull, covered with a medium amount of blue bloom, decidedly persistent, soft. Skin thick, intermediate in toughness, adheres strongly to the pulp, contains no pigment, astringent. Flesh slightly translucent, juicy, tender, somewhat stringy, moderately fine-grained, inclined to vinous, sprightly, sweet at skin but acid at center, good to very good in quality. Seeds one to six, average four, large, long and broad, blunt, brownish; raphe shows as a distinct cord-like ridge; chalaza small, roughened and frequently with radiating furrows, much above center, variable in shape, distinct.
SCUPPERNONG.[210]
(Rotundifolia.)
1. Amer. Farmer, 1:317. 1819. 2. Ib., 3:332. 1822. 3. Ib., 9:29, 30. 1827. 4. Ib., 9:139. 1827. 5. Prince, 1830:167. 6. Ib., 1830:170. 7. Downing, 1845:258. 8. Horticulturist, 12:457. 1857. 9. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt., 1857:231. 10. Gar. Mon., 5:73, 74. 1863. 11. Grape Cult., 1:38, 280, 292. 1869. 12. Ib., 3:60. 1871. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1871:16. 14. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1881:40, 68, 147, 153, 155. 15. Gar. Mon., 28:140, 173. 1886. 16. Ala. Sta. Bul., 29:18. 1891. 17. Bush. Cat., 1894:177. fig. 18. Am. Gard., 20:688. 1899. 19. Ga. Sta. Bul., 53:49, 59. 1901. 20. N. C. Sta. Bul., 187:58, 60. 1903. 21. S. C. Sta. Bul., 132:18. 1907.
American Muscadine (5, 10, of the South 7). Bull (9, 17, of the South 7). Bullace (9, 17). Bullet (17, of the South 7). Fox grape of the South (7). Green Scuppernong (6). Green Muscadine (6). Hickman (3). Hickman (5, 10). Muscadine (9). Roanoke (4). Roanoke (5, 10, 17, of the South 7). Scuppernong (3, 4, 5). White Muscadine (11, 17). White Scuppernong (5). Wild green Muscadine (6). Yellow Muscadine (17).
The Scuppernong is preeminently the grape of the South. It is the chief representative of the great species Vitis rotundifolia, which runs riot in natural luxuriance from Delaware and Maryland to the Gulf, and westward from the Atlantic to Arkansas and Texas. The name Scuppernong was taken from the Indians and is now common in the geography of North Carolina; a river, a town, a lake, and a swamp all bear this appellation. Calvin Jones, an agriculturist of note in North Carolina during the early part of the last century, gives the following history of the name as applied to the grape it now distinguishes:[211] “This grape & wine had the name of Scuppernong given to them by Henderson & myself, in compliment to James Blount of Scuppernong, who first diffused a general knowledge of it in several well written communications in our paper—and it is cultivated with more success on that river than in any other part of the state, perhaps, except the Island of Roanoke.”
Scuppernong is said to have been found on Roanoke Island at the time of the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony. There is a tradition that an old vine now growing on this island is the original vine. At an early day it was quite common to propagate Scuppernong by seed, pulling out all vines bearing black fruit as soon as the color of the fruit could be determined. Because of this practice it is probable that there are many seminal varieties under the general name Scuppernong. All that seems to be required for a grape to pass under this name is that the vine should be a Rotundifolia and the fruit white.
In the horticultural accounts of the history of Scuppernong it is commonly spoken of as having been found wild during the latter part of the eighteenth century. But Lawson, writing about 1700, in the account quoted on page 37 of this work, describes with sufficient accuracy a white Rotundifolia which could hardly be any other than the Scuppernong. It is, thus, in a sense, a botanical as well as a horticultural variety. Its close relationship to the black form of Rotundifolia is attested by the fact that its seedlings are as often, probably more often, black than white. That Scuppernong is more distinct than the other varieties of Rotundifolia is indicated by the fact that of the ten cultivated varieties of Rotundifolia now grown in the South, James, Thomas, Eden, Meisch, Flowers, Memory, Seedlin, Tenderpulp, Jeter, and Scuppernong as given by Newman,[212] all are black but the last named.