1054 VARNISH 



VANILLA, or VANXIiXiE, is the oblong narrow pod of various species of 

 Vanilla (as V. aromatica and V. planifolia), of the natural family Orcltidea, which 

 grows in Mexico, Columbia, Peru, and on the banks of the Oronoco. 



The best comes from the forests round the village of Zentila, in the Intendancy of 

 Oaxaca. The vanilla plant is cultivated in Brazil, in the West Indies, and some other 

 tropical countries, but does not produce fruit of such a delicious aroma as in Mexico. 

 It dings like a parasite to the trunks of old trees, and sucks the moisture which their 

 bark derives from the lichens, and other cryptogams, but without drawing the nourish- 

 ment from the tree itself. The fruit is subcylindric, about 8 inches long, one-celled, 

 siliquose, and pulpy within. It should be gathered before it is fully ripe. 



When about 12,000 of these pods are collected, they are strung like a garland by 

 their lower end, as near as possible to the foot-stalk ; the whole are plunged for an 

 instant in boiling water to blanch them ; they are then hung up in the open air, and 

 exposed to the sun for a few hours. Next day they are lightly smeared with oil, by 

 moans of a feather, or the fingers ; and are surrounded with oiled cotton, to prevent 

 the valves from opening. As they become dry, on inverting their upper end they 

 discharge a viscid liquid from it, and they are pressed at several times with oiled 

 fingers, to promote its flow. The dried pods lose their appearance, grow brown, 

 wrinkled, soft, and shrink into one-fourth of their original size. In this state they 

 are touched a second time with oil, but very sparingly ; because, with loo much oil, 

 they would lose much of their delicious perfume. They are then packed for the 

 market, in small bundles of 50 to 100 in each, enclosed in lead-foil, or tight metallic 

 cases. As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness of a swan's 

 quill, strait, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, truncated at the top, thinned off at 

 the ends, glistening, wrinkled, furrowed lengthwise, flexible, from 5 to 10 inches long, 

 and of a reddish-brown colour. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, unctuous, very 

 brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, very small seeds. Its smells am- 

 brosial and aromatic ; its taste is hot, and rather sweetish. These properties seem to 

 depend upon an essential oil, and also upon benzoic acid, which forms efflorescences 

 upon the surface of the fruit. The pulpy part possesses alone the aromatic quality. 



The kind most esteemed in France is called leq vanilla : it is about six inches long, 

 from ^ to ^ of an inch broad, narrowed at the two ends, and curved at the base, 

 somewhat soft and viscid, of a dark-reddish colour, and of a most delicious flavour, 

 like that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla givrees, when it is covered with 

 efflorescences of benzoic acid, after having been kept in a dry place, and in vessels not 

 hermetically closed. 



The second sort, called vanilla simarona, or bastard, is a little smaller than the 

 preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It 

 is said to be the produce of the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo. 



A third sort, which comes from Brazil, is the vanillon, or large vanilla of the 

 French market ; the vanilla pamprona or bova of the Spaniards. Its length is from 5 

 to 6 inches ; its breadth from A to of an inch. It is brown, soft, viscid, almost 

 always open, of a strong smell, but less agreeable than the leq. It is sometimes a 

 little spoiled by an incipient fermentation. It is cured with sugar, and enclosed in 

 tin-plate boxes, which contain from 20 to 60 pods. 



Vanilla, as an aromatic, is much sought after by makers of chocolate, ices, and 

 creams ; by confectioners, perfumers, and liquorists, or distillers. It is difficultly 

 reduced to fine particles ; but it may be sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into smail 

 bits, and grinding these along with sugar. The odorous principle can, for some pur- 

 poses, be extracted by alcohol. 



Some researches recently conducted in Dr. Hofmann's laboratory at Berlin, by MM. 

 Tiemann and Haarmann, have led to the successful preparation of a substance which 

 appears to be identical in chemical and physical properties with vanillin or the aromatic 

 principle of vanilla. The cambium of coniferous trees contains a crystallisablo 

 glucoside called coniferin ; submitted to the action of ferments, coniferin is resolved 

 into glucose and a crystalline product, which, under the influence of oxidising agents, 

 such as a mixture of bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid, gives rise to the forma- 

 tion of vanillin, or the aromatic principle of vanilla. The manufacture of artificial 

 vanillin on a commercial scale is about to be commenced (1874). 



VAPOUR ( Vapeur, Fr. ; Dampf, Ger.) is the state of elastic or aeriform fluidity 

 into which any substance, naturally solid or liquid at ordinary temperatures, may be 

 converted by the agency of heat. A visible fluid floating in the atmosphere, as distin- 

 guished from a gas which is ordinarily, unless it be coloured as chlorine gas, invisible. 

 The vapour of water is STEAM. 



VAREC. The name of kelp made on the coast of Normandy. See KELP and VRIA.C. 



VARNISH (Vernis, Fr. ; Firniss, Ger.) is a solution of resinous matter, which 

 is spread over the surface of any body, in order to give it a shining, transparent, and 



