VANILLA 347 



firmly bound and sprinkled with water. The bales con- 

 taining the largest beans are now placed in an oven 

 heated to 140 F. When the temperature of the oven 

 has fallen to 113 F., the smaller beans are introduced, 

 and the oven is closed tight. Twenty-four hours after- 

 ward the smaller beans are taken out, and twelve hours 

 later, the larger ones. During the sweating the vanilla 

 acquires a fine chestnut color. It is now spread on 

 matting, exposed to the sun every day for about two 

 months, and when the drying is .nearly complete, is 

 spread out in a dry place, and finally tied up in small 

 packs." (Am. Jour. Phar., 1881, pp. 345-349; see also 

 Pharm. Journ. and Trans., 1880-81, pp. 773-775). 



Finally, the bundles are packed in cans containing 

 forty bundles each, and four or five of these cans are 

 packed in a case of Mexican red cedar, which is the 

 most suitable and plentiful wood in the vanilla land. 

 These hand-made cases cost from $2 to S3, but there 

 are no saw mills to cheapen the lumber (in 1897). 

 Finally they are covered with fiber matting and trans- 

 ported to the seashore by caravans of mules or burros, 

 each beast having two cases strapped to its back, and 

 during the journey it is watched by two or three at- 

 tendants. So opposed are the natives to the in- 

 troduction of a railroad, as to have led them to hang 

 a civil engineer who desired to survey the country. 

 (Hires). 



COMMERCIAL VARIETIES. Beringer, in 1892, (Am. 

 Jour. Phar., 1892, pp. 289-294), described the following 

 species of vanilla found on the American market: 



Mexican, Bourbon, Seychelles, Mauritius, Tahiti, 

 South American vanilla, and vanillons. 



The Mexican vanilla, on account of its superior aro- 



