116 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



proper management in the curing of them, it is difficult to say. 

 It may possibly be attributable in some degree to both causes. 

 As the pods are not ready for gathering till December, it seems 

 not improbable that they require more warmth during the two 

 or three months when they are completing the ripening process 

 than the climate of Bengal will afford them. 



The mode of cultivation practised in the Mauritius, and 

 adopted in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, is to build at the 

 base of some high tree a small rampart of brickwork, about a 

 foot high, fill it up with a light soil of leaf-mould, plant in it 

 the Vanille plant, and brick over the surface of the soil. In a 

 short time the plant will grow to a considerable height up 

 the tree, clasping it with the aerial roots it throws out as it 

 ascends. 



A flower-pot, however, with suitable soil answers, as far as I 

 can see, the purpose equally well as the rampart of brickwork ; 

 for in no great time the Vanille plant, after climbing up the 

 tree, disconnects itself almost entirely from the soil at the base 

 of the tree, except by the old dried roots, which seem no longer 

 to convey any nourishment to the plant. 



The plants continue blossoming from February to April. 

 The flowers expand early in the morning, at which time they 

 require to be operated upon artificially, or, in this country at 

 least, they will not set fruit. The operation consists in intro- 

 ducing the points of small tweezers into the mouth of the flower, 

 handling it gently, and extracting from the upper lip a small 

 piece of the membrane which encloses the pollen. If not suc- 

 cessful, and impregnation has not taken place, it will be known 

 by the circumstance of the flower not dropping from the ovary 

 for full a month or more. If successful, the flower drops off in 

 a day or two. 



The plants may likewise be grown with great success in pots, 

 trained upon a bamboo trellis fixed in them ; and possibly in 

 Bengal this would be found the best plan to adopt, as the 

 plants would thus not only be at command during the whole 

 period of their growth, but might be removed at the commence- 

 ment of the Cold season to some warm sheltered situation, 

 instead of being left exposed, as they usually are, to the full 

 force of the cold winds. 



Mr. Thwaites directs that "the pods should be gathered, 



