Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum of 1753, gives seven species as belonging to this genus, three of which are credited to America. One, however, Vitis arborea, is not classed among the grapes by present-day botanists.
Marshall,[114] the first American botanist we have to consider, for neither Tournefort nor Linnaeus had ever been on this continent, in his Arbustrum Americanum, 1785, describes the genus Vitis in terms so nearly identical with those of Linnaeus as to lead one to suspect that it is merely a translation from the Genera Plantarum. Marshall gives five species. One of these is certainly not a grape and one other is indeterminate.
Thomas Walter,[115] in his Flora Caroliniana, 1788, gives a brief description of the genus very similar to the foregoing but he also speaks of the masculine and feminine forms of the flowers, a point that does not seem to have been noticed by any botanist of an earlier date. He speaks of the corolla adhering at the top and coming off as a cap, one of the distinguishing characters of Vitis. This latter point had, however, been noted by Tournefort, and his figures show that this is what he means when he speaks of the flower as folding upward. Tournefort, however, seems to have been under the mistaken impression that Ampelopsis (Ampelopsis quinquifolia Michx. is our common American form) opens its flowers in the same way, as he includes this under Vitis. Walter gives only three species and his descriptions of these are very brief.
The first European botanist who made an extensive study of American plants in their habitats was André Michaux, a French botanist who traveled extensively in North America at about the close of the eighteenth century. In his Flora Boreali-Americana, which was published in 1803, he gives a brief generic description of Vitis which includes all of the essential characters given by Walter. He also questions the male and female characters mentioned by Walter.[116] Michaux mentions five species of the American grapes. His descriptions are clear and every species described can readily be recognized so that there is no question among botanists as to what species was meant in any instance.
An interesting contribution to our knowledge of the grapes of North America is that of William Bartram.[117] Bartram’s opportunities for becoming familiar with these plants were probably greater than those of any other person of his day, he being a resident of America, and his father having been a botanist, so that he was trained from childhood to observe plants. The following is an extract from an article of Bartram’s in the Domestic Encyclopedia, 1804:
“The most obvious characters which distinguish the grape vines of America from those of the old continent are: 1. The berries of all the American species and varieties that I have seen, approach the figure of an oblate spheroid; that is, the poles are flattened, and the transverse diameter is longer than the polar: however, I have observed that Alexander’s grape, and some of the bul or bullet grapes, approach nearer to an oval or ellipsis which is the figure of all foreign or European grapes that I have seen; viz. a prolate spheroid. 2. Most of the American species and varieties have a glaucous and yellowish pubescence on the under surface of their leaves. 3. All that I have observed in the northern and eastern districts of the United States are polygamous; i. e. those vines which bear fruit (female) have hermaphrodite flowers (pentandria monogynia); but the males have only five stamina, without any female organ, and are always barren. One should suppose, from Walter so strongly marking this character as to induce him to place the Vitis in the class Dioecia, when Linnaeus and the other European botanists had placed it in Pentandria (he himself being an European), that all the grape vines of the old continent are hermaphroditous and Pentandrian. I know not from my own observation, whether the bull-grape of Carolina is hermaphroditous or dioecious, and therefore rest satisfied with Walter’s assertion.” Bartram gives four species.
Nuttall,[118] in his Genera of North American Plants and Catalogue of the Species, gives a rather stereotyped description of the genus but in addition in fine type he gives the following:
“Leaf simple and cordate, angularly or sinuately lobed, rarely digitate or pinnate (Cissus?), flowers numerous, in compound racemes, not uncommonly producing 4, 6 and 7 petals, with a corresponding number of stamens, calix mostly entire, or obsoletely crenate, a glandulous disk surrounding the germ; tendril dichotomous, sometimes producing flowers, therefore analogous to a sterile raceme.”
It is evident that Nuttall was in doubt as to the distinguishing characters between Vitis and the allied genus, Cissus. While he has the species of the two genera in the same position they would now be placed, his reference to pinnate-leaved species is somewhat misleading as no pinnate-leaved species are known to-day in either Europe or America. He uses, however, the distinguishing character between these two genera that we now accept, that is, Vitis has petals that adhere at the tops and come off in the form of a cap or calyptrum, while in Cissus the corolla does not fall off as a cap. Nuttall mentions six species as belonging to this genus: Vitis labrusca, V. aestivalis, V. cordifolia, V. riparia, V. rotundifolia, and V. palmata, with a question mark after the last species. None is described. His work is apparently a discriminating compilation of the work of earlier botanists.
Many other botanical workers wrote on this genus during the period covered and some of them did very valuable work in describing the various species but their work has not been referred to because it did not add to the knowledge of the genus as a whole.