184 THE TEOPICAL WORLD. 



beans are roasted, finely ground, so as to convert them into a 

 perfectly smooth paste, and improved in flavour by the addition 

 of spices, such as the sweet-scented vanilla, a short notice of 

 which will not be out of place. 



Like our parasitical ivy, the Vanilla aromatica, a native of 

 torrid America, climbs the summits of the highest forest- 

 ti-ees, or creeps along the moist rock crevices on the banks of 

 I'ivulets. 



The stalk, which is about as thick as a finger, bears at each 

 joint a lanceolate and ribbed leaf, twelve inches long and three 

 inches broad. The large flowers w^hich fill the forest witli 

 their delicious odours, are white intermixed with stripes of 

 red and yellow, and are succeeded by long and slender pods 

 containing many seeds imbedded in a thick oily and balsamic 

 pulp. These pods seldom ripen in the wild state, for the 

 dainty monkey knows no greater delicacy, and his agility in 

 climbing almost always enables him to anticipate man. 



At present the vanilla is cultivated not only in Mexico, but 

 in Java, where the industrious Dutch have acclimatised it since 

 1819. It is planted under shady trees on a damp ground, and 

 grows luxuriantly ; but as a thousand blossoms on an average 

 produce but one pod, it must always remain a rare and costly 

 spice. 



Although but little known beyond the confines of its native 

 country. Coca is beyond all doubt one of the most remarkable 

 productions of the tropical zone. 



The sultry valleys on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian and 

 Bolivian Andes are the seat of the Erythroxylon Coca, which, 

 like the cofl'ee-tree, bears a lustrous green foliage, and white 

 blossoms ripening into small scarlet be Ties. The leaves when 

 brittle enough to break on being bent, are stripped from the 

 plant, dried in the sun, and closely packed in sacks. The 

 naked shrub soon gets covered with new foliage, and after three 

 or four months its leaves are ready for a second plucking, 

 though in some of the higher mountain-valleys it can only be 

 stripped once a year. Like the coffee-tree, the coca-shrub 

 thrives only in a damp situation, under shelter from the- sun ; 

 and for this reason maize, which rapidly shoots up, is generally 

 sown between the rows of the young plants. 



The local consumption of coca is immense, as the Peruvian 



