VANILLA. 147 
flavour, but still sometimes soid with it, also bearing the same 
vernacular name “lec,” “ leq,” or “ leg,” abbreviated from “ legi- 
timate.” The third sort is the V. sacata, having a finer cuticle 
than the first. The fourth, V. resecata, is small, dry, and only a 
fourth the length of the preceding. The fifth quality is called 
basura, and is a very inferior product. 
2. Vanilla sylvestris or simarona, a wild species, with smaller 
fruit than the coriente. This plant appears to be botanically 
identical with the coriente, but as it is found growing in dense 
woods, whose foliage deprives it of sunlight, its pods cannot de- 
velop. 
3. Vanilla mestiza (mestiza, meaning in English middle, medium, 
or average). This bears a rounder pod than other varieties. The 
green unripe pods are spotted with brown, and the ripe pods are 
very apt to split open. 
4. Vanilla puerca (La Porcine, Vanille cochon, Swine vanilla). 
This variety bears much smaller pods than those of V. coriente ; 
they are also rounder in form, of a darker green colour when un- 
ripe, and exhale an unpleasant odour during the process of curing 
—hence the name. 
5. Vanilla pompona. This plant bears a very thick short fruit 
covered with a very thin skin. When this fruit begins to dry it 
acquires a very fine perfume (recalling that of heliotrope). The 
perfume is, however, considered less sweet than that of the 
“ coriente,’” and it is apt to go off, or disperse by evaporation if 
tied in bundles alone, so it is sometimes packed up with the No. 1 
variety. It is comparatively low-priced, and is commercially 
designated “ Vanillon”’ in French. 
The method of cultivation adopted in the island of Réunion is 
different ; the plant being so trained that all the flowers may be 
within easy reach of the hand of the cultivator, not so much for 
facility of gathering the fruit as for the purpose of artificially in- 
oculating the flowers. The plantation may be started in the 
forest or in an open field. In the first case, the cuttings are set 
at the foot of trees, and the trunks are connected together trans- 
versely by sticks of wood or bamboo attached horizontally, so as 
to form a sort of trellis on which the plant can spread freely. In 
no case are the trees lopped to allow too much sun, for the plant 
loves a humid soil and is injured by the direct burning rays. It 
is under large trees that the vanilla plant is seen in its typical 
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