342 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



reach and penetrate the ground. Hence it is to some 

 extent epiphytic. But should it fail to establish its 

 connection with the ground, it finally withers and dies. 

 (Charles A. Hires, Am. Journ. Pharm., 1893, 571-584; 

 see also same journal, 1892, p. 554, and 1890, p. 308). 

 Vanilla is in no sense a parasite. In the West Indies it 

 is grown in bamboo joints, with a very little earth, hung 

 in branches of trees. 



As an evidence of the vitality of the vanilla plant, 

 the following, from Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, 

 (5th ed., London, 1763), may be quoted: 



"I had some branches of this plant which were 

 gathered by Mr. Robert Miller at Campeachy, and 

 sent over between papers by way of sample, and had 

 been at least six months gathered when I received them; 

 but upon opening the paper I found the leaves rotten 

 with the moisture contained in them, and the paper was 

 also perished with it, but the stems appeared fresh; 

 upon which I planted some of them in small pots and 

 plunged them into a hotbed of tanner's bark, where 

 they soon put out leaves and sent forth roots from their 

 joints." 



EARLY HISTORY. The conquering Spaniards found 

 vanilla in use as a flavor for cacao among the Aztecs of 

 Mexico, and naturally made the plant known to Europe. 

 (A. V. Humboldt, Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la 

 Nouvelle Espagne. 1811. Vol. II, p. 338; Vol. Ill, 

 p. 198 et seq.) It was then described and figured by 

 Hernandez, (314), the "Pliny of the Spaniards," who 

 in his history of Mexico mentions it under both its 

 botanical name, "Aracus aromaticus," and its vernacu- 

 lar name, "tlilxochitl." Clusius (153) mentions it in 

 1602 as "lobus oblongus aromaticus." Pomet (519) in 



