Cbe 



journal of Pharmacology, 



Devoted to the Advances Made in Materia Medica in its Branches. 



Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy, Chemistry, Botany, Pharmaco- 



Dynamics, Therapeutics and Toxicology. 



Published by the Alumui Association of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York. 



Vox.. V. 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1898. 



No. 2. 



THE SPECIES, DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OE VANILLA PLANTS, AND 

 THE CULTIVATION AND CURING OF VANILLA. 



By H. H. Rushy, M.D. 



The genus Vanilla was established by Plunder in Miller's Gardener's 

 Dictionary, Edition 6, in the year 1752. The genus has been enlarged from 

 time to time, until we find the Index Kewensis, in 1896, recognizing 33 

 species. Besides these recognized species, the Index cites 23 additional 

 names which it regards as synonyms. As in the case of most large genera, 

 there is a wide difference of opinion as to the limitations of the species, 

 their number being thus greater or less according to different authorities. 

 Engler and Prantl, in the " Pflanzenfamilien," allow but 20, which is also 

 the number allowed by Bentham and Hooker in the " Genera Plantarum." 

 This doubt as to specific boundaries extends even to those of the improved 

 and cultivated species V. planifolia, there being a wide difference of opinion 

 regarding half a dozen forms, as to whether they are distinct species or mere 

 varieties of this one. 



The genus is peculiar among flowering plants for its exceedingly wide 

 distribution, nearly all parts of the tropical world possessing their repre- 

 sentatives. 



In the New World we have 18 species; 3 from Mexico, 5 from the West 

 Indies, 2 from Guiana, 3 from Brazil, 1 each from New Granada and 

 Equador and 3 from Peru. This list may have to be extended by the addition 

 of one which I have collected in Bolivia, or this may turn out to be one of 

 those already known in Peru. In the Old World there are 15 species, 4 

 from Tropical Africa, 3 from the East Indies, 2 from Java, and 1 each from 

 Ceylon, Sumatra, Bourbon, the Seychelles, the Philippines and the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



<iARi;EJN. 



