Fruit ripens a week or more earlier than Concord, keeps fairly well but does not ship well. Clusters attractive, averaging medium in size and length, somewhat slender, blunt, tapering to nearly cylindrical, irregular, usually strongly shouldered, moderately compact; peduncle medium in length and thickness; pedicel intermediate in length, inclined to slender, nearly smooth; brush of average length, green. Berries usually below Niagara in size but somewhat variable, roundish to slightly oval, light green, slightly glossy, covered with thin gray bloom, usually rather persistent. Skin unusually thin, tender, adheres to pulp, contains no pigment, slightly astringent. Flesh pale green, translucent, juicy, fine-grained, tender and soft when fully ripe, somewhat foxy, vinous, sweet, good in quality. Seeds separate easily from the pulp, few in number, usually one to three, averaging two, rather small and broad, notched, short to medium, nearly plump, brownish; raphe obscure; chalaza of average size, slightly above center, circular to nearly oval, showing only as a depression. COLUMBIAN IMPERIAL. (Labrusca, Riparia.) =1.= _Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt._, =1893-4=:30. =2.= _Bush. Cat._, =1894=:105. =3.= _Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt._, =1894-5=:67, 70. =4.= _N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt._, =18=:374, 387, 395. 1899. =5.= _Mo. Sta. Bul._, =46=:38, 43, 44, 45, 49. 1899. =6.= _Mich. Sta. Bul._, =169=:166, 169. 1899. =7.= _Mo. Hort. Soc. Rpt._, =1899=:57. =8.= _Ga. Sta. Bul._, =53=:42. 1901. COLUMBIAN (3, 6). _Imperial_ (3). JUMBO (1). _Jumbo_ (2, 3). Columbian Imperial is a showy, reddish-black, Labrusca-Riparia hybrid chiefly remarkable for the great size of its berries; though the vine is so exceptionally healthy and vigorous as to give it prominence for these characters. The variety has remarkably thick, leathery leaves which seem almost proof against either insects or fungi. The quality of the fruit, however, is very inferior and the clusters are uneven as to the number of berries and these shell off readily. The only possible value of the variety is for exhibition purposes and for breeding to secure the desirable characters named above. Columbian Imperial is a frequent adornment of the salesbook of the fruit tree agents and the panegyrics heaped upon it by misinformed or unscrupulous salesmen have given it a rather wide distribution in the gardens of the amateur where it has no place whatever. The parentage of Columbian Imperial is unknown. The fruit was originated by J. S. McKinley, Morgan, Orient P. O., Ohio, in 1885. It was introduced by the Columbian Grape Company, of Kingston, Ohio, under the name Columbian, also by J. R. Johnson of Dallas, Texas, under the name Columbian Imperial. Supposed by many to be of Labrusca-Riparia blood. The Labrusca shows plainly; the Riparia little, if at all.