The Croton is a feast both to the eye and the palate. The accompanying color-plate does not do it justice as grown at its best, as it shows a loose, straggling bunch, a characteristic of the variety only when poorly grown. Unfortunately it has the fault of being difficult to grow well, being adapted to but few soils and proving unfruitful, weak in growth, precariously tender, and somewhat subject to mildew and rot in unfavorable situations. But when well grown the consensus of opinion among viticulturists is that it has few superiors among white grapes. It has a sweet, delicate Vinifera flavor, with melting flesh which readily separates from the few seeds. The fruit hangs on the vines until frost, and keeps well into the winter. The Croton is among green grapes what its parent, the Delaware, is among red grapes. In spite of its high quality it has never become widely distributed, failing utterly as a commercial variety, quality counting for but little in grape markets. If this delicious fruit is to be saved to cultivation it must be by the hands of the amateur. Croton came from Stephen W. Underhill[174] of Croton Point, New York, from seed of Delaware pollinated by Chasselas de Fontainbleau. The seed was planted in the spring of 1863 and the vine fruited for the first time in 1865. The grape was first exhibited at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society meeting in 1868. It was placed on the grape list of the American Pomological Society fruit catalog in 1871 but was dropped in 1883, chiefly on account of its susceptibility to fungal diseases. Vine medium to vigorous, often somewhat tender, usually productive, subject to disease in unfavorable locations. Canes long, numerous, thick, rather dark reddish-brown; nodes enlarged, usually not flattened; internodes medium to short; diaphragm very thick; pith large; shoots glabrous; tendrils intermittent, long, bifid. [Illustration: CROTON] Leaf-buds large, prominent, long, of average thickness, conical, open late. Young leaves tinged on lower side and at margin of upper side with faint carmine. Foliage remains until late in the season; leaves of medium size, intermediate in thickness; upper surface light green, dull, nearly smooth to rugose; lower surface pale green, slightly cobwebby or hairy; veins indistinct; lobes five in number, terminal lobe blunt to acute; basal sinus of average depth, rather narrow; lateral sinus inclined to deep and nearly narrow; petiolar sinus medium deep, narrow, often closed and overlapping; teeth inclined to shallow, wide. Flowers fertile, open late; stamens upright.