440 MR. R. ALLEN ROLFE ON THE GENUS VANILLA. 
name as “ Tlilxochitl.” In 1658 Piso added the information 
that it was used by the S paniards as an ingredient in the manu- 
facture of chocolate on account of its fragrance, and that they 
called it “ Vaynilla” or little pod (‘ Mantissa,’ pp. 200, 201). 
Soon afterwards Dampier gave some valuable information 
about the same plant, which in 1676 he had seen growing on 
the coast of the Bay of Campeachy, South Mexico (‘ Voy.,” ii. 
p- 123), and in 168] at Boca-toro, in Costa Rica (l.c., i. p. 38). 
It was largely collected by the Indians, who sold it to the 
Spaniards. He also describes the method of curing the fruit, 
and remarks that the plant bears a yellow flower (l.c., i. p. 234). 
In 1796 a Jamaican species was confused with the preceding, 
both by Plukenet (‘ Almagest. Bot.,’ p. 381) and Sloane (‘ Cat. 
Pl. Ins. Jam.,’ p. 70), which is now known to be V. inodora, 
whose fruits are not aromatic. This confusion was particularly 
unfortunate, as it has been continued in some form or another 
by almost every writer down to the present time. 
In 1703 Plumier briefly defined the genus Vanilla for the 
first time, enumerating three species from the West Indies 
(‘Nov. Pl. Amer. Gen.,’ p. 25), one of which still remains 
doubtful. The Mexican Vanilla was not included. In 1705 
Merian figured the fruiting branch of a species from Surinam 
(‘ Metamorph. Insect. Surinam.’ t. 25), but in the text confused 
it with the Mexican species. Three species were now confused 
together, and these, in 1753, were all included by Linneus 
under his Epidendrum Vanilla (‘ Sp. Pl.,’ p. 952), which in turn 
became the Vanilla aromatica of Swartz on his reviving 
Plumier’s genus Vanilla in 1799 (‘ Noy. Act. Soc. Sc. Upsal.,” 
vi. p. 66). A leafless West Indian species, V. claviculata, was 
now added for the first time. 
The Mexican Vanilla had been introduced to cultivation prior 
to 1739, when the second edition of Miller’s ‘ Gardener’s 
Dictionary ’ was published, but appears to have been again 
lost. It was, however, re-introduced by the Marquis of 
Blandford and flowered in the collection of the Right Hon. 
Charles Greville, at Paddington, prior to 1807, in which year 
a flowering Specimen was figured and described by Salisbury 
under the name of Myobroma fragrans (‘ Parad. Lond.,’ t. 82), 
and a year later Andrews published another figure as Vanilla 
planifolia (* Bot. Rep.,’ viii. t. 538). Both of these authors 
wrongly identified the plant with a West Indian species, and 
