Croton

(Vinifera, Labrusca, Bourquiniana)



The fruit of Croton is a feast both to the eye and to the palate.

Unfortunately the vine is difficult to grow, being adapted to but few

soils and proving unfruitful, weak in growth, precariously tender and

subject to mildew and rot in unfavorable situations. The grapes have a

delicate, sweet Vinifera flavor with melting flesh which readily

separates from the few seeds. T e crop hangs on the vines until frost

and keeps well into the winter. In spite of high quality of fruit,

Croton has never become widely distributed, wholly failing as a

commercial variety. It originated with S. W. Underhill, Croton Point,

New York, from a seed of Delaware pollinated by a European grape.

Fruits were first exhibited in 1868.



Vine vigorous, tender, productive. Canes long, numerous, thick,

dark reddish-brown; nodes enlarged; internodes short; shoots

glabrous; tendrils intermittent, long, bifid. Leaves of medium

size, hang late; upper surface light green, dull, smooth; lower

surface pale green, pubescent; lobes five, terminal one blunt;

basal sinus narrow; lateral sinus deep and narrow; petiolar sinus

narrow, often closed and overlapping; teeth shallow, wide. Flowers

self-fertile, open late; stamens upright.



Fruit mid-season, keeps well. Clusters uniform, very large, long,

slender, irregularly tapering with heavy shoulder, very loose;

pedicel long, thick with inconspicuous warts; brush green. Berries

irregular in size, round-elongated, yellowish-green with thin

bloom, persistent, soft; skin thin, tough, adherent, unpigmented;

flesh green, transparent, very juicy, melting, vinous, pleasant,

agreeably sweet; very good. Seeds free, one to three, elongated,

notched, sharply pointed.