VANILLA 341 



many warm countries, as Brazil, Honduras, Java and 

 the West Indies. Mr. C. G. Lloyd has seen it in most 

 of the botanical gardens in Jamaica, Dominica and 

 Trinidad, although as an article of commerce it is 

 grown in but one island, the French island of Guada- 

 loupe. 



As has been shown by Darwin, most orchids depend 

 on insect fertilization, and vanilla is no exception. In 

 Mexico, where it is native, it is naturally fertilized by 

 insects, but when raised in any other country, it must 

 be fertilized by artificial means. 



The flowers of vanilla are produced in axillary 

 bunches of eight or ten. They are of a pale-yellow 

 color, about two inches in diameter. They have the 

 usual orchidaceous structure, but are more regular in 

 appearance than most orchids. The fruit is a pendant 

 pod five to ten inches long, an inch or more in 

 circumference when fresh, and containing myriads of 

 minute seeds. These pods, when properly cured and 

 dried, are the "vanilla" of commerce, so named from 

 the Spanish name for pod, Vaina, hence a small pod. 



The plant that produces this pod is a vine with a 

 thick, succulent stem and entire, thick, smooth, pointed 

 leaves. It is furnished with numerous aerial roots, 

 with which it clings to its support. Some regard the 

 plant as a parasite, deriving its nourishment from the 

 tree to which it clings; others as an epiphyte, (true of 

 many orchids), living entirely on moisture and the 

 nourishment derived from the air. (John M. Maisch, 

 Am. Journ. Pharm., 1892, p. 555). Neither opinion is 

 exact. After the vanilla plant has established itself, it 

 will continue to grow, even if its connection with the 

 ground is severed, and it will throw out new roots which 



