Narrative
Type = Species. Per Munson (see citation) [DESCRIPTION]: "Plant: Very stocky, vigorous, moderately branching, rapidly tapering, climbing moderately, about same as V. labrusca, 20 to 40 feet or more in rich sandy soils; expanding tips not leafy; aspect generally open; seldom dense canopy-like, with dark lively green foliage. Roots: Large, little fibrous, rather fleshy, but very firm, deeply penetrating. Wood: When young, cylindrical, whitish or brownish tomentose, soon becoming floccose and disappearing in the mature annual wood, which is a dark reddish-brown and often having numerous short, black glandular prickles, especially near the nodes, [...] buds large, globular, conical or obscurely triangular, acute, covered with shining reddish-brown scales, underneath which is an abundance of brownish-red wool, in expanding medium size, open, rosy or crimson; tendrils intermittent, rarely 3 to 5 in succession, ordinarily once forked in var. glauca, twice in the typical forms, long, slightly cottony in glauca, or rarely smooth when young, to densely rusty woolly in the species, at first finely striated, color reddish or green, becoming same color at wood at maturity, strong, persistant; internodes usually short, or of medium length, 2' to 4' or more; pith medium, slightly enlarged at lower end near diaphragm, pale brown. Leaves: Stipules short 1/16' to 1/8 long, broad, pinkish, with thin rusty cotton on outer face; petiole in full grown leaf large and strong, average length 5', cylindrical or slightly flattened, with a very narrow, shallow groove above scarcely noticable, being hidden by pubescence or tomentum along its margins, striations obscure, with thick, velvety pubescence or tomentum, or both, along the striae, color purplish or pale red; blade large in the species to very large in var. glauca, 4' to 8', often more, broad, average width of many leaves 6'; blade always broader than long, generally twice or more the length of petiole; general outline circular; basal sinus generally broadly or narrowly A shaped with double curved sides, sometimes rounded, with limbs 3 to 5, sometimes 7 lobed; [...] Cluster: Fertile,--varying from below medium in a large 3' to 10' or more long, in b, generally cylindrical with a large shoulder and very compact, generally simple and rather open, in a, rarely so in b ; divisions simple; peduncle medium or short; rachis cottony or nearly smooth, bluish-green when young; pedicels 1/6' to 1/4' long, enlarged at summit, warty; sterile,--much larger and more compound. Flowers: Fertile,--tip of buds before opening, crimson, stamens weak, recurved and bending laterally close to base of the large ovary; seldom self-fertile; style short, thick; stigma large to medium, sometimes resembling (in form a), V. candicans, and (in form b), V. cinerea. Staminate,--bud same as fertile, stamens strong, ascending. Berries: 1/2' to 1' in diameter, in 'a' generally much larger than in 'b', often more or less oblate in 'a'; spherical in 'b'; color black or sometimes dark purple, covered with a thin bloom in 'a', more in 'b'; in a commonly drops very easily,--as soon as ripe,--'b' hangs much better and occasionally is quite persistant; skin thin and tough in 'b'; pulp in a usually tough, dry, very acid, and astringent; in 'b' more juicy, tender, sometimes quite melting, vinous. Seeds: 1 to 4, small in 'b' generally, to very large in 'a', 1/5' to 1/4' or more long, by 1/6' to 1/5' broad, obvate pyriform, with sometimes very short or on beak, but genrerally with a large, orange colored, strong, blunt beak, sometimes in form 'b' small and acute, well defined, resembling V. cinerea; color light in a to dark purplish-brown in 'b'. [...] [APTITUDES]Vigor and endurance in the changeable western climates remarkable, resisting drought exceedingly well; Mildew and Rot attack leaves and fruit of some of the vines in regions where these fungi are abundant."