464 MR. R. ALLEN ROLFE ON THE GENUS VANILLA. 
which has been known ever since the discovery of America by 
the Spaniards, and was described by Clusius as long ago as 
1605, as mentioned on p. 439. Its early history is much confused, 
as for a long period three or four species were confounded 
together, and even when the present one was described it was 
not known as the source of the Vanilla of commerce, which was 
then, and for long afterwards, thought to be V. aromatica, Sw. 
(i.e. V. inodora, Schiede). The collection can be directly 
traced from the Paddington Garden in 1807, as mentioned on 
p. 440, to various continental gardens, to Java (where Blume 
re-described it under the name of V. viridiflora), and to 
Réunion—thus originating the present industry in that island. 
Myobroma fragrans, Salisb., was drawr from the same individual 
as the original Vanilla planifolia, Andr. V.sativa and V. sylvestris 
of Schiede are only known from the original descriptions, but 
are evidently forms of the same species, differing only a little 
in the length of the fruit, the former being a cultivated race 
and the latter the wild original. V. majazjensis, Blanco, is also 
known only from description, and as the fruit is said to be not 
aromatic a doubt remains as to its identity. Succeeding 
authors, however, have considered it synonymous with the 
present one, and if Blanco’s fruits were unripe this view may 
be correct, in which case it seems probable that the species was 
introduced to the Philippines from Mexico by the Spaniards. 
Naves (Blanco, ‘Fl. Filip.’ ed. II. Nov. App. p- 248) 
enumerates it as growing in the province of San Mateo, where 
he had seen flowers and fruit, and a confirmation of the identi- 
fication seems desirable. 
26. VaNiLLA pH#ANTHA, Reichb. f. in Flora, xlviii. (1865), 
p- 274; habitu Vanille planifolie ; bracteis majoribus laxis, 
late elliptico-oblongis subobtusis ; floribus majoribus viridi- 
flavis; labello obscure trilobo fere truncato, nervis non 
verrucosis; cristé appendicibus foliaceis denticulatis retrorsis 
composita; labelli basi lineis 2 puberulis instructa; capsulad 
lineari-oblongA obscure compress’.—Rolfe, in Kew Bull. (1895) 
p. 176. 
V. planifolia, Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind., p. 638, in part (non 
Andr.). V. planifolia 8. macrantha, Griseb., Cat. Pl. Cub., 
p. 267. 
Hab. West Indies, Cuba, Wright, 3351, in part! St. 
