Vegetable Oils and Fats 



377 



Phulwara Butter is the produce of an allied tree (Bassia butyracea), known as the Indian 

 "Butter" tree. 



Shea Butter is obtained from the seeds of Butyrospermum Par kit, a large tree, allied to 

 the Bassias, widely diffused through northern tropical Africa. The seeds yield about fifty 

 per cent, of fat, having at ordinary temperatures a buttery consistency ; it'is greyish in colour,, 

 and when fresh has a pleasant taste and smell. The seeds imported into Europe pass to candle 

 and soap factories. 



SPICES AND CONDIMENTS 



A large number of vegetable products, although 

 of themselves of little or no nutritive value, have 

 been used by man from the earliest times to render 

 ordinary articles of food more palatable. Such 

 substances are known as spices and condiments, 

 and, in addition to merely improving the flavour 

 of the food, in a large number of cases they act as 

 digestives, since, in coming into contact with the 

 membranes of the digestive tract, they cause an 

 increased secretion of the digestive fluids. ' 



Many condiments, such as salt, vinegar, and 

 artificial compounds do not come within the 'scope 

 of this article, which deals with the more important 

 of the spices and condiments derived from plants. 



Vanilla 



This well-known spice consists of the cured 

 pods of one or more species of Vanilla, a genus of 

 Orchidaceous plants, native to South America. 

 The bulk of the vanilla of commerce is the product 

 of Vanilla plant folia, a climbing plant indigenous 

 to Mexico, but now cultivated in several parts of 

 the tropics, notably in Java, Seychelles, Mauritius, 

 and Ceylon. 



The methods of culture and preparation vary 

 somewhat in different parts of the world, and the 

 system adopted in Seychelles will be described. 



Vanilla was introduced into these islands in 

 1866, probably from Reunion. The vines are trained 

 over small trees, or on hardwood stakes connected 

 at the top by crosspieces ; the most satisfactory 

 method is to allow each plant a separate tree over 



which to climb. The supporting trees are planted about nine feet apart, those already standing 

 on the estate being utilised as far as possible. The vanilla cuttings are planted at the foot of 

 the trees, covered with a mulch of dead leaves and grass, and the free ends tied to the tree by 

 strips of the leaf of the Screw Pine (Pandanus utilis). Their rapid growth soon enables the shoots 

 to be trained through the forks of the branches to which they attach themselves by tendrils. 

 At the end of eighteen months the plants are pruned in order to induce the formation of 

 flowers on easily accessible branches. The checked branches, generally from four to six 

 feet long, now hang down to within about a foot from the ground, and it is upon these 

 branches that the flowers are chiefly formed. The fully developed pods are only formed 

 after the flowers have been fertilised, and, in a state of nature, this very seldom happens 



pimento or allspice 



