Ironclad is of interest because of its history, and because of its possible value for breeding purposes. If the history given below is correct, this variety is one of the oldest of our cultivated grapes. From the accounts of those who have grown it, Ironclad is as free from mildew and rot, in fruit at least, as any of our cultivated native grapes. It is also very resistant to phylloxera and has been used somewhat in France and Spain as a resistant stock for Vinifera. It is also extremely vigorous and hardy and is very productive. The fruit is not of sufficiently high quality nor attractive enough in appearance to make a good table grape but it is said to make very excellent wine, the juice having color and body enough to make it of value for adding color to lighter colored musts. Ironclad is a very capricious bearer and especially so on rampant growing vines, one of the faults of the variety being that it makes too rank a growth. The history of this grape, as given by A. W. Pearson of Vineland, New Jersey, is as follows: In 1873 Pearson secured from Colonel Scott, then president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, cuttings of a vine growing on the latter's grounds, near Darby about seven miles west of Philadelphia. Scott's gardener reported the vine to be free from rot and Pearson, who had named the variety Scott, changed the name to Ironclad when he found the gardener's report as to rot verified. On investigation Pearson found that the variety was over two hundred years old, and that it had been cultivated locally under the name of Ash, from a former owner of the Scott place and an ancestor of Pearson. This account is not fully corroborated by early horticultural writers but appears to be sufficiently accurate to give the variety historical interest. Ironclad is said to be a hybrid between Labrusca and Riparia and its botanical characters justify such a supposition. [Illustration: IRONCLAD] Vine a rank grower, hardy, productive. Canes long, numerous, thick to slender, dark reddish-brown; nodes of average size, flattened; internodes medium to long; diaphragm thin; pith large to medium; shoots glabrous; tendrils continuous, of fair length, bifid to sometimes trifid. Leaf-buds small, short, slender to medium, conical to pointed. Leaves of medium size, intermediate in thickness; upper surface dark green, somewhat glossy, smoothish; lower surface pale green, slightly pubescent; veins rather distinct; lobes none to three with terminal lobe acute to acuminate; petiolar sinus intermediate in depth and width; basal sinus usually lacking; lateral sinus shallow, usually wide; teeth intermediate in depth and width. Flowers open early; stamens reflexed.