FOLIAGE PLANTS. 221 



however, have a delicious aroma. When this is so, 

 their fragrance is usually of a very delicate and refined 

 nature. Among the vegetable treasures, for example, 

 obtained from plants of orchidaceous growth, we may 

 mention the now well-known Vanilla (Vanilla Planti- 

 folia], which produces the deliciously scented and 

 flavoured vanilla beans, one or two of which, enclosed 

 in a trunk, among clothes, will in a hot climate in a 

 short time impart its aroma to every article packed 

 within it. Now vanilla is a species of fleshy orchid- 

 aceous creeper, originally a habitant of the forests of 

 Brazil, where it was discovered by Plumier in 1703. 

 It is a strictly shade-loving plant, very tough in its 

 texture, but with nothing very remarkable about it in 

 appearance. Yet, as we know, this humble and un- 

 obtrusive looking plant has already cut a considerable 

 figure in the world, and is now largely cultivated in 

 many tropical countries, as its value as a commercial 

 product of the great forest region of the equatorial zone 

 seems to be constantly more and more appreciated. 



But besides the exquisite beauty of many of the 

 floral treasures of these regions, the tropical forest 

 possesses still another, if possible yet more delicate and 

 beautiful form of colouring, which may be regarded 

 as quite peculiar to itself, in its numerous varieties of 

 " foliage plants, " as they are now called by horticul- 

 turists. The singular grace and delicacy of colour- 

 ing displayed by the leaves of many of these plants 

 are well known ; and a fairly good idea of the splendid 

 effects that they are capable of producing, in the way 

 of artistic decoration, may be obtained by the inspection 

 of a good stove-house at home, whose still and sultry 

 atmosphere gives an exact artificial representation of 



