150 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
No plant should be allowed to bear too freely, the quality and 
size of the pods suffer thereby. The pruning out of pods should 
be performed after the fruit is fairly set, and should be propor- 
tioned to the age aud health of the creeper ; not more than tive or 
six pods being allowed on a single cluster. A plant of three or 
four years’ growth has hundreds of blossoms thereon, but the 
quantity of pods taken from the same should not be more than 
will yield half a pound of dried produce. 
Of course in its native place of growth, the method of propaga- 
ting by striking young shoots of three feet or so in length is the 
most rapid method; but stock could probably be reared from 
seed taken from pods which have matured naturally by being left 
on the plant ; such pods split open and drop some of their seed. 
Fecundation of the Flower. 
In the flower of the vanilla the male organ is separated from 
the female organ by the light membranous skin of the labellum 
(the upper lip of the stigmatic orifice), this totally covering the 
female organ, and as the anther rests on that valve of the stigma, 
it is evident that notwithstanding the dehiscence of the anther, 
the orifice which allows passage of the pollen is closed by the 
labellum, thus rendering spontaneous fecundation comparatively 
rare. It does, however, sometimes occur, and may be attributed 
to the passage of a winged insect in search of food, or to the 
action of the wind detaching the pollen from the anther ; but it 
seems more rational to suppose that the brush-shaped appendage 
on the labellum is solely intended for the purpose of collecting 
the pollen and then depositing it on the stigma at the moment 
when the flower begins to droop and fade. Still, the natural 
fecundation ‘is a rare occurrence, for in Guiana, Mexico, and all 
other countries where the plant is left to itself, it has been ob- 
served that a length of 12 to 26 inches of vine will only produce 
one pod, the number of flowers growing on such length of stalk 
being about forty, all of which can be artificially fecundated. ‘The 
flowers are produced in clusters in the axils of the leaves, A 
plant in full health and strength may produce as many as two 
hundred clusters at a time, each cluster consisting of from fifteen 
to twenty flowers. A single plant, therefore, may bear three or 
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