38 YANILLA PLANIFOLIA. 



trained upwards, either to an upright round trellis or to a stout 

 branch. The shoots should be placed round the support at 

 equal distances. The lower parts of the shoot will soon break 

 buds, and form new shoots. By doing this you will have a low, 

 dense bush ; each shoot of it will produce several flowers, and 

 thus the plant will form a handsome specimen. Like the rest of 

 the genus, it requires a high temperature and plenty of moisture 

 when growing ; but less heat and moisture after the growth is 

 perfected. It flowers during the dry season in India, and, there- 

 fore, will flower here just before it is put into a state of rest. 



YANILLA PLANIFOLIA. This is the plant that produces the 

 far-famed perfume named, par excellence, Vanilla. In its native 

 country, the West Indies, it climbs up the tallest trees, adhering 

 to the stem and branches like our common Ivy, only its roots 

 are ten times longer and stronger. I have cultivated it by first 

 planting a young plant in a pot in the usual compost, and 

 then nailing the long straggling shoots to the back wall of the 

 Orchid -house, and keeping the wall moist during the growing 

 season by syringing it and the plant every day. It grew very 

 ' fast and sent forth numerous roots, which clung very tenaciously 

 to the moist wall. In a year or two the shoots reached the top 

 of the wall ; I then trained them down the rafters, where they 

 soon flowered and produced large bunches of their perfume- 

 bearing pods. The same method of culture I found practised 

 several years ago at Sion House, and with still more success, 

 because the walls of the large tropical-house there were much 

 loftier than the house I had under my care. The flowers them- 

 selves are large and handsome, of a yellowish-white colour, and 

 the foliage is also large arid of a rich dark green colour. I found 

 the shade produced by the foliage was, during hot weather, 

 beneficial to the plants underneath. As this plant is cheap 

 enough it is worthy of culture, taking up no room and covering 

 a naked wall with its large glossy leaves, and when old enough 

 producing its fine flowers followed by clusters of its curious 

 pods. 



