A number of considerations have governed the selection of varieties for full descriptions. These are: First, the value of a variety for the commercial or amateur grower for any part of the State as determined by the records of this Station, by reports collected from over 2000 grape-growers, and by published information from whatever source. Second, the probable value of new sorts as determined by their behavior elsewhere. Third, to show combinations of species or varieties, or new characters hitherto unknown in fruit or vine, or to portray the range in variation, or to suggest to the plant-breeder a course of future development. Fourth, a few sorts have been described because of their historical value--for the retrospection of the grape-grower of the present and the future. It is needless to say that many of the varieties described are worthless to the cultivator. In all of the descriptions the effort has been to depict living plants and not things existing only in books; to give a pen picture of them that will show all of their characters. An attempt has been made, too, to show the breeding of the plants, their relationships; to show what combination of characters exist in the different groups of varieties; to designate, as far as possible, the plastic types; in short to show grapes as variable, plastic plants capable of further improvement and not as unchangeable organisms restricted to definite forms. It is hoped that the color-plates will be of great service in illustrating the text. All possible means at the command of photography and color printing have been used to make them exact reproductions. The specimens, too, have been selected with the utmost care. In preparing these illustrations the thought has been that technical descriptions, however simply written, are not easily understood, and that the readiest means of comparison and identification for the average reader would be found in the color-plates. Through these and the accompanying descriptions it is hoped that all who desire may acquire, with time and patience, a knowledge of the botanical characters of grapes and thereby an understanding of the technical descriptions. The plates have been made under the personal supervision of the writer.