The botanical characters of Concord indicate that it is a pure-bred Labrusca; thus the seed with obscure raphe and chalaza, the pubescence on the under surface of the leaf, the flesh characters of the fruit, the continuous tendrils, the diaphragm, all belong to _Vitis labrusca_. There are those, however, who maintain that it is possibly a Labrusca-Vinifera hybrid, basing their claim upon the upright stamens, the characters of some of the seedlings, and the opinion expressed by Bull that a Catawba vine growing near by had fertilized the seed from which Concord was raised. Concord is a virile variety, having begotten a great number of valuable offspring, both as pure-breeds and as cross-breeds. To these it has seemingly transmitted its characters to a high degree. The reader who takes the pains to look them up will find that many of these, even of the pure-breeds, are white and that they are usually of higher quality than the parent, indicating a white ancestor of Concord in which high quality was possibly correlated with the light color. The seed of a wild grape was planted in the fall of 1843 by E. W. Bull[173] of Concord, Massachusetts, from which fruit was borne in 1849. The wild grape from which the seed came had been transplanted from beside a field fence to the garden in which there was at least another grape, the Catawba, and the wild vine was open to cross-pollination. One of these seedlings was named Concord and the variety was exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in the fall of 1852. The new grape was introduced in the spring of 1854 by Hovey & Co., of Boston. From the time of its introduction the growth of this variety in popularity was phenomenal. In 1854, the year of its introduction, it was placed on the grape list of the American Pomological Society fruit catalog as one of the "new varieties which promise well." In 1858 it was placed on the regular list of recommended sorts where it has since been retained. Husmann states, in the winter of 1855, that he secured buds at Hermann, Missouri, from Soulard of Galena, Illinois. In other words, its culture had spread halfway across the continent in the brief period of a year. Before 1860, vineyards of Concord had been planted in Chautauqua County, this State. In 1865 it was awarded a prize by the American Institute known as the Greeley prize, from its donor, Horace Greeley, as the best grape for general cultivation. Vine vigorous to very vigorous, hardy, healthy, usually productive of heavy crops. Canes above medium length, of average number, above mean thickness, rather dark reddish-brown to brown; nodes enlarged, flattened; internodes medium to long; diaphragm rather thick; pith large to medium; shoots pubescent; tendrils continuous, long, bifid, sometimes trifid.