sidered its normal position. To all this, the thumb is the only objector; but mighty as that is in all matters of common life, you must already have perceived, by a kind of "reductio ad absurdum," that the less it, and, indeed, the whole hand are regarded in our morphological comparison, the less liable shall we be to fall into such extraordinary and fantastic notions as some of those we have been considering. Fortunately, however, man can but interpret Nature; he cannot change her. His errors die with his interpretation, while the facts belong to God, and are safe from the interference of man.

THE SOUTHERN MUSCADINE GRAPE.
BY D. H. JACQUES.

CLIMBING the tallest trees, covering and almost smothering the smaller undergrowth, hanging over rail fences, hiding pine stumps and brush-heaps, or, for want of other support, trailing on the ground, one may see almost everywhere in the South, from the seaboard of Georgia and Florida to the mountain slopes of North Carolina, the graceful vines of the Southern Muscadine, and, in its season, the ripened fruit, with which many of these vines are laden, will allure the traveller at every turn from the dusty road. Few who have once eaten this fruit, in its perfection, will be able to resist the temptation to dismount and eat the tempting clusters.

As this grape is not found (I believe) north of the southern slopes of the Alleghany Mountains, and is little known, and often erroneously described, a brief notice of it may not be out of place.

The Southern Muscadine, otherwise called Bullace, Bull, and Bullet-grape is the Vitis Rotundifolia of Michaux (V. Vulpina Linn.), and is very distinct from all

other species. Its light-brown slender wood, its innumerable small branches, thrown out tree-like rather than in the manner of other grape-vines, and its small, lightgreen shining leaves, give it a peculiar and singularly beautiful appearance. The following is a correct description of it :-Stem smooth, light-brown dotted with white, lithe, tough, and without pith; branches minutely verrucose, numerous, slender; leaves small, cordate (but somewhat rounded, whence Michaux's name); dentate,

sometimes obscurely three-lobed, glabrous, shining on both surfaces; flowers in racemes, composed of numerous small umbels; polygamous, yellow; berries large, black, musky sweet, with a tough skin; flowers in June; first ripe in September.

The Southern Muscadine produces its fruit in clusters of from three to eight berries, on small branches put out from all parts of the vine, and, if the soil and other conditions be favorable, is often very prolific. The berries vary in size, from half-inch to an inch in diameter. They are brown-black and shining when commencing to ripen, but a dull-black, dotted and sometimes blotched with red when fully ripe. They vary much on different vines, being sometimes hard and sour, but often tender and deliciously sweet. In the best specimens the pulp finally dissolves, and the skins become literally bags of wine. The fruit generally falls from the vine soon after it becomes ripe, but I have seen some vines on which the berries have clung with as much tenacity as in any other species. I have gathered bushels of these grapes during the present season, out of a portion of which I have made some excellent wine.

Professor Asa Gray, in one of his Botanical Text-books (see "Manual of Botany of the Northern United States," page 78), describes the Muscadine as the parent of the Catawba and the Scuppernong. The former is a variety of the Vitis Labrusca, or Northern Fox-grape. In regard to the latter he is correct.

The Scuppernong is a seedling of the Muscadine, and was found growing wild on the banks of the Scuppernong River in North Carolina. The wood is a shade lighter than that of the parent, but dotted like that, and the foliage and habits of growth of the plant are mainly the

same. The fruit is a pale green when fully ripe, and dotted with brown. It is large,-often an inch in diameter, very sweet, less musky than the common Muscadine, and with a thinner and tenderer skin, and is a delicious table grape. For wine, it is superior to all other native varieties, being emphatically the wine-grape of America. Unlike other cultivated grapes, it is perfectly free from all diseases, no rot or mildew ever infecting wood, leaves, or fruit.

Flower's Grape is a black variety of the same species, and is thought by some to be equal, if not superior, to the white or green variety. It is sweet, juicy, and fragrant, and makes a fine wine of any desired shade of red. It ripens about a month later than the Scuppernong, and does not fall off like that variety. Both are enormously productive, so much so that I hardly dare to state how many bushels of fruit a single vine may bear; but from 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of wine per acre is considered a moderate estimate for a vineyard in full bearing, in which all the arbors are fully covered,—that is, when the whole ground is completely canopied with vines. The vines are planted from twenty to forty feet apart, a , and trained on arbors made with posts notched on the top, and supporting a layer of common fence-rails. This arbor is extended with the growth of the vine, till the ground is covered. The vines require no pruning, except for the removal of dead branches, or to improve their symmetry. A Scuppernong vineyard is worth a journey from Salem to Savannah to see.

Such is the Muscadine of the South and its offspring.

A VACATION TRIP TO BRAZIL.

BY C. FRED. HARTT, A. M.

New York to Para.

ON the 22d of June, 1867, I left New York in the steamer "Havana" to spend my vacation on the Brazilian coast, my especial object being an exploration of the coral reefs of the vicinity of the Abrolhos Islands, and the study of the geology of such parts of the Province of Bahia as might be accessible to me. Nothing of note occurred on the voyage to the Island of St. Thomas, where the steamer was delayed a day to take in coal, and where I had an opportunity to make a good collection of corals, etc. A long account of my day's examinations having already appeared elsewhere, I propose in this series of articles to take up my description of some of the more interesting results of my voyage after leaving the West Indies, and to offer a closing article on St. Thomas and the Windward Islands, in which I will incorporate new material collected on my return home.

Steamships have robbed the sea of half its poetry, and a voyage by steam is often very barren in incidents; so with this voyage, we have had no storms, no accident to break the monotony of our life at sea, so that our journals have not been much enriched by any very interesting experiences when out of sight of land. To be sure we have fished up gulf-weed, and collected the delicate little animals found growing on it, and we have watched the flyingfish and porpoises and whales; but one sees about as much of these things from a steamer, as he does of the cattle of a country he travels through by rail.

*N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 7, 1867,-"A Naturalist in the West Indies."