33 



almost all diseases. It is highly nutritive, and may be used for 

 the same purposes as sago, tapioca, and arrow-root. Dr. 

 O'Shaughnessy states that two drachms afford a sufficient meal 

 for an invalid ; good salep, carefully prepared, is, in truth, one of 

 the best articles of diet a convalescent can use. In India the 

 salep of Cashmere is reckoned the best, and is obtained chiefly at 

 the Hurdwar fair, from the Cashmere merchants. Dr. Royle 

 considers the plant that yields Cashmere salep is an Eulophia. 

 O. morio and O. militaris, both natives of Britain, also supply 

 salep, equal in quality to that obtained from O. mascula, and it 

 has been suggested that the substance might be profitably made 

 in this country. The best time to gather the tubers is when the 

 seed is formed and the stalk is going to fall, for then the new bulb, 

 of which salep is made, is arrived at its full size. The new roots 

 are washed in water, the outer skin removed, and then set on a 

 tin plate, in an oven heated to the degree of a bread oven. In 

 six, eight, or ten minutes they will have acquired a transparency 

 like horn, without being diminished in size ; they are thus to be 

 removed into a room to dry and harden, which will be done in a 

 few days, or they may be finished in a slow heat in a few 

 hours. In North America salep is obtained from a species of 

 Habenaria. 



Vanilla was generally believed to be the fruit of Vanilla 

 aromatica, but it is now supposed to be that of V. planifolia. It 

 is a parasitical plant, with a long tortuous stem, twining among 

 trees, and rising to their tops by means of suckers, after having 

 taken root at their base, in the chinks of rocks, &c. It is found 

 in humid, shady places in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Guiana, and 

 it is cultivated in Cayenne, St. Domingo, the Mauritius, and 

 Ceylon. The fruit, which is the part used, is straight, 4 to Sin. long, 

 and three or four lines thick, slender and curved at the end next 

 the flower, and obtuse at the other extremity, containing, within 

 its tough shell, a soft black pulp, in which numerous minute, 

 black, glossy seeds are embedded. These seeds are, when the 

 fruits open at perfect maturity, often adherent to the external 

 surface of the pods, placed in plaits or channels, and it is then 

 that a liquid, called baume de vanille, exudes. This is unknown 

 in Europe, but it is made use of in Peru. The fruit has a strong, 

 sweet, peculiar, and agreeable odour; a warm, aromatic, sweetish 

 taste, and the interior pulpy matter is the most aromatic. It 

 appears as if it contained benzoic acid, which is so abundant that 

 it effloresces on the surface of the pods in fine needles. The pods 

 are collected before they are ripe, and about three parts dried, 

 then covered over with a coating of the oils, either of cocoa-nut, 

 or castor-oil, or of Anacardium occidentale, to keep them pliant, 

 to check the evaporation of the aromatic properties, and to pro- 

 tect them from the attacks of insects. They are then tied in 



