374 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of which is here given. The intimate mixture of 

 these substances having been effected, the whole is 

 put while yet hot into tin moulds, where it hardens in 

 cooling, and in this form, if preserved from the air, 

 it will keep good for a considerable time. Chocolate 

 is not very much consumed in England ; it is in greater 

 esteem in France ; it forms the ordinary breakfast in 

 Spain ; and in Mexico, according to Humboldt, it is 

 not considered an object of luxury, but rather of prime 

 necessity. 



VANILLA Vanilla aromatica is a native of 

 Mexico, and of some parts of India. The Spaniards 

 found its fruit in use among the Aztecs at the time 

 of their first invasion of Mexico. At this day, al- 

 though a considerable quantity of vanilla pods is 

 collected in that state for the purpose of exportation, 

 the people do not themselves employ them in the 

 manufacture of chocolate the only use to which 

 they have ever been anywhere applied conceiving 

 them to be possessed of unwholesome properties. 



The vanilla is a parasitical plant ; its leaves 

 are lanceolate and ribbed, eighteen inches long, and 

 three inches broad. Its flowers are white, intermixed 

 with stripes of red and yellow colours ; these are 

 succeeded by long and slender pods, which at first 

 are green, but become yellow as they ripen, and are 

 then collected for use. The cavity of the pod con- 

 tains, besides its numerous seeds, a substance which 

 is black, oily, and balsamic ; when recently gathered 

 this is humid, and its odour is said to induce a kind 

 of temporary intoxication. The pods are harvested 

 during the three latter months of the year, and are 

 carefully dried by exposure to the sun's rays until 

 they are made warm, in which state they are wrapped 

 in woollen cloths, to promote and absorb evaporation. 

 By this process the vanilla acquires a black hue, with 



