Perhaps no grape better illustrates the importance of local influences and of knowledge of the peculiarities of varieties than Diana. All grapes have their likes and dislikes but this one is capricious beyond most others. It wants, for instance, comparatively poor, dry, gravelly soil without any considerable amount of humus or nitrogen. On clays, loams, or rich soils, the vines make a rank growth and the fruits are few, late and of poor quality. So, too, it needs to be long pruned, and to have all surplus bunches removed leaving a comparatively small crop to mature, and these should hang until frost. To the fact that Diana is so easily influenced must be attributed the great diversity of opinion as to its worth, some holding it to be a most excellent variety while in a nearby vineyard it is considered worthless. In favorable situations Diana may be expected to make a most satisfactory grape for the amateur and where it does especially well it will prove a profitable variety for the local market. Its splendid keeping qualities make it a very desirable grape for late winter. It is even better in this respect than Catawba, one of the best keepers. While the pulp of Diana has the meaty structure which adapts it for long keeping its pulpiness is not objectionable as in some grapes and its thick skin has a rich, spicy flavor. Wine made from Diana is said to be second to none from our native grapes, equalling or surpassing that made from Catawba. To Mrs. Diana Crehore of Milton, Massachusetts, is due the honor of having originated Diana. The variety was produced from seed of the Catawba open to cross-pollination, planted about 1834. It was exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1843. The Pomological Congress at their second meeting in 1850 placed Diana on their list as a "new variety which promises well," and in 1854 it was included in the American Pomological Society list of sorts recommended for general cultivation. The demand for this grape was so keen that in 1850 it was sold for $15 a vine. The species of Diana is usually given as Labrusca but the Vinifera-like berries and the intermittent tendrils indicate Vinifera and the bloom on the shoots suggests a strain of either Bicolor or Aestivalis. Vine vigorous, not always hardy, produces light to medium crops, somewhat susceptible to attacks of leaf-hoppers and fungi. Canes pubescent, long, of average number, thick to medium, light brown to reddish-brown, covered with thin blue bloom; nodes enlarged, slightly flattened; internodes medium to long; diaphragm thick; pith medium to large; shoots pubescent; tendrils intermittent, long, bifid.