VANILLA. 81 



most favourable inducements to the planter to undertake its 

 cultivation. The Castilloa tree grows in deep loamy or sandy 

 soil, is a deep feeder, striking its roots far into the ground, and 

 not exhausting the surface soil ; again, it grows with wonderful 

 rapidity, soon forming a large, handsome shade -tree ; and lastly, 

 it gives a return in rubber within eight or ten years, when most 

 other trees do not mature for some twenty or thirty years. 



In a cacao plantation, the rubber-trees may be planted at 

 40 feet apart, or one tree between every third tree of cacao. 

 When young the lower branches fall off naturally, and by a 

 little subsequent trimming and pruning the trees might be so 

 trained as to give the requisite shelter and shade, while at tne 

 same time there is a clean stem for facilitating the extraction of 

 the rubber. 



If rubber-trees are planted in cultivated areas, as shade-trees 

 for cacao, Liberian coffee, oranges, &c., as mentioned above, the 

 return from them at the end of eight or ten years would 

 average, at least, about 1 sterling per tree, or at the rate of 

 25 per acre. This return might be repeated in about five 

 years by the same trees, and continued, at certain intervals, as 

 long as the trees lasted. 



The Vanilla plant ( Vanilla planifolia) is also a native of 

 British Honduras ; and fine masses of it are found in the forest, 

 hanging down from the trees, which, when the fruit is ripe, diffuses 

 a fragrance perceptible at a considerable distance. If only these 

 pods were gathered " when full," as planters term it, that is, 

 before they begin to turn yellow, and properly cured, a con- 

 siderable trade might be made in them. Being an orchid, the 

 flowers of the vanilla have a wonderful appliance, which requires 

 the presence of an insect to fertilise them. That this insect 

 is present in British Honduras is abundantly proved by the 

 numbers of bunches found on the wild plants. At present 



