PHARMACOP@GIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
scribed it under both the botanical name, “aracus aromaticus,” and 
its vernacular name, “tlilxochitl.” Clusius (153) mentions it in 1602 
as “lobus oblongus aromaticus.”” Pomet (519), in 1694, reports the 
use of vanilla in France to flavor chocolate and sometimes to perfume 
snuff, As early as 1721 vanilla was introduced into the London phar- 
macopeia, and in 1739 Mr. Ph. Miller (437) planted some vanilla 
specimens (vanilla aromatica, Swartz) in the Chelsea botanical gar- 
den. In the West Indies and the adjoining coast of South America 
vanilla has also long been known. 
In 1724 P. Labat (365), a Catholic missionary, reports (from 
hear-say) the abundant occurrence of vanilla in the “terre ferme” of 
Cayenne, from which place specimens were forwarded to him in 1697 
to Martinique, where he cultivated the plant and observed its habits 
for eight years. He also planted vanilla in Guadaloupe. In 1750 
P. Gumilla met vanilla in the Orinoco country. To Humboldt (331) 
we owe the first authentic and detailed report on Mexican vanilla. 
The Mexican Province of Oaxaca supplied the first vanilla export to 
Spain, and the bean was discovered in this province by De Menonville 
(Gardeners’ Chronicle, May, 1874) in 1777. Vanilla forests, accord- 
ing to old archives, have been in cultivation at Papantla, near Vera 
Cruz, as early as 1760. 
The species yielding the finest-flavored vanilla, subsequently 
named vanilla planifolia, Andrews, was imported from America into 
England by the Rt. Hon. Charles Greville (Hortus Kewensis, Vol. v, 
1813), this flowering in his collection at Paddington in 1807 (57). 
Specimens of this plant were later transferred to Paris and Belgium, 
from whence the botanical gardens of Reunion (Bourbon) and Java 
were supplied. In 1830 Neumann introduced the artificial fecunda- 
tion of Vanilla planifolia in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and in 
1837 Professor Morren did the same at Liege (239). The Java plan- 
tation, started in 1841, now supplies the Dutch market solely. 
The Reunion plantation, according to Delteuil, was started by 
Perrottet in 1839 (239). The cultivation of vanilla for the purpose 
of export was subsequently introduced into other French colonies— 
e. g., into Mauritius by M. Richard (550), into Guadaloupe (in 1875), 
Martinique, Ste. Marie (near Madagascar), and into Tahiti of the 
Society Islands. In Jamaica individual attempts to cultivate vanilla 
are on record. The cultivation in Calcutta, however, according to re- 
ports by Dr. King, seems to be a failure. (Phar. Journ. & Trans., 
Nov., 1876.) Suggestions have been made of a more energetic prose- 
cution of the vanilla culture in Jamaica, in Venezuela, and Guiana; 
also of an introduction of this article into the extreme southern parts 
of the United States, Florida, and Texas. For a historical treatise 
Pe all the aspects of vanilla and its cultivation see (388) Vanilla plani- 
olia. 
VERATRUM VIRIDE 
This is quite a common plant in many parts of the United States, 
particularly in the eastern states, where it grows in swampy places, wet 
meadows, and along the borders of streams. It is usually well known 
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