Again they look like diminutive flocks of fowl, their heads ever pointing in one direction, no matter how the vine may twist and turn - always toward the top of the branch, that they may the better siphon the sap down their tiny throats.Toward the end of summer the females, which have a sharp instrument at the rear of their bodies, cut deeply into the juicy food-store, the cambium layer of bark, and there deposit their eggs.Presently, a nest being filled, the mother emits a substantial froth at the end of her ovipositor, and proceeds to construct the cottony, corrugated dome over her nursery which first attracted our attention.This is especially skilful work, for she works behind her, evidently not from sight, but from instinct only.Inasmuch as the young hoppers will not come forth until the following summer, some such snug protection is required during winter's cold and snows.With hordes of little parasites constantly preying on its juices, is it any wonder the vine is often too enfeebled to produce seed, or that the leaves lose part of their color and become, as we say, variegated? Occasionally one finds the cottony nursery domes of this little hopper on the locust tree - the favorite home of its big, noisy relative, the so-called locust, or cicada.
NEW JERSEY TEA; WILD SNOWBALL; RED-ROOT
(Ceanothus Americanus) Buckthorn family Flowers - Small, white, on white pedicels, crowded in dense, oblong, terminal clusters.Calyx white, hemispheric, 5-lobed;petals, hooded and long-clawed; 5 stamens with long filaments;style short, 3-cleft.Stems: Shrubby, 1 to 3 ft.high, usually several, from a deep reddish root.Leaves: Alternate, ovate-oblong, acute at tip, finely saw-edged, 3-nerved, on short petioles.
Preferred Habitat - Dry, open woods and thickets.
Flowering Season - May-July.
Distribution - Ontario south and west to the Gulf of Mexico.
Light, feathery clusters of white little flowers crowded on the twigs of this low shrub interested thrifty colonial housewives of Revolutionary days not at all; the tender, young, rusty, downy leaves were what they sought to dry as a substitute for imported tea.Doubtless the thought that they were thereby evading George the Third's tax and brewing patriotism in every kettleful added a sweetness to the homemade beverage that sugar itself could not impart.The American troops were glad enough to use New Jersey tea throughout the war.A nankeen or cinnamon-colored dye is made from the reddish root.
NORTHERN, WILD, FOX, or PLUM GRAPE
(Vitis Labrusca) Grape family Flowers - Greenish, small, deliciously fragrant, some staminate, some pistillate, rarely perfect; the fertile flowers in more compact panicles than the sterile ones.Stem: Climbing with the help of tendrils; woody, bark loose.Leaves: Large, rounded or lobed, toothed, rusty-hairy underneath, especially when young, each leathery leaf opposite a tendril or a flower cluster.Fruit:
Clusters containing a few brownish, purple, musky-scented grapes, 3/4 in.across.Ripe, August-September.
Preferred Habitat - Sunny thickets, loamy or gravelly soil.
Flowering Season - June.
Distribution - New England to Georgia, west to Minnesota and Tennessee.
Aesop's fox may never have touched the grapes of fable, but this, our wild species, certainly retains a strong foxy odor, which at least suggests that he came very near them.Tough pulp and thick skin by no means deter birds and beasts from feasting on this fruit, and so dispersing the seeds; but mankind prefers the tender, delightful flavored Isabella, Catawba, and Concord grapes derived from it.The Massachusetts man who produced the Concord variety in the town whose name he gave it, declares he would be a millionaire had he received only a penny royalty on every Concord grapevine planted.
What fragrance is more delicious than that of the blossoming grape? To swing in a loop made by some strong old vine, when the air almost intoxicates one with its sweetness on a June evening, is many a country child's idea of perfect bliss.Not until about nine o'clock do the leaves "go to sleep" by becoming depressed in the center like saucers.This was the signal for bedtime that one child, at least, used to wait for.We have seen in the clematis how its sensitive leafstalks hook themselves over any support they rub against; but the grapevine has gone a step farther, and by discarding an occasional flower cluster and prolonging the flower stalk into a coiling, forking tendril it moors itself to the thicket.We know that all tendrils are either transformed leaves, as in the case of the pea vine, where each branch of its tendril represents a modified leaflet; or they are transformed flower stalks or other organs.Occasionally the tendril of a grapevine reveals its ancestry by bearing a blossom or a cluster of flowers, and sometimes even fruit, about midway on the coil, which attempts to fill all offices at once like Pooh Bah.
The phylloxera having destroyed many of the finest vineyards in Europe, it would seem that Americans have the best of chances to supply the world with high-class wines, for there is not a State in the Union where the vine will not flourish.Here its worst enemy is mildew, a parasitical fungus which attacks the leaves, revealing itself in yellowish-brown patches on the upper side, and thin, frosty patches underneath.Soon the leaves become sere, and then they fall.The microscope reveals a miniature forest of growth in each leaf, with the threadlike roots of the fungi searching about the leaf cells for food.To burn old leaves, and to blow sulphur over the vine while it is wet, are efficacious remedies.Bees and wasps which puncture grapes to feast on them, are the innocent means of destroying quantities.