S6 COCOA : ALL AliOlT IT. 



The places chosen for a ])lantatl()n are shaded and warm 

 ravines in high, damp forests, advantage l)eing taken of trees with a 

 soft bark, into whicli the roots may easily penetrate. 



It is interesting, in connection with our subject, to hear from 

 one who has cultivated the plant that he has seen it growing 

 freely round the stem of the Cocoa tree like a hop. 



Vanilla ai'oiiatica and V. planifolia are the species from 

 which the best kind of Vanilla is grown for commerce. The 

 leaves are thick and lleshy, as are also the flowers, which are of 

 a whitish-green colour. 



The sweet perfume of its fruit is perceptible at a great 

 distance, and attracts numbers of brilliantly coloured birds, that 

 dispute for the seeds when the fruit opens. 



The Chica Vanilla of Panama is yielded by another orchid, a 

 species of sobralia. The expressed juice of V. claviculata, a 

 native of mountainous woods in the West Indies, is applied to 

 fresh wounds, and is hence called b\- the French in St. Domingo 

 Liane a blessiires. There is a species known as zizpic in 

 Yucatan, which is a great ornament of the ce?iotes, or subterranean 

 water caverns of the country. These singular caverns are 

 sometimes entirely subterranean, and are then, of course, without 

 vegetation ; frequently, however, they are more or less open at 

 the top, when they are often of surpassing beauty, on account of 

 the luxuriant development of vegetable life which they contain. 

 To these ce7iotes the few ferns of Yucatan are almost confined, 

 and it is here that \^anilla attains perfection. The pods are 

 occasionally taken to market at Valladolid, where they may be 

 bought at an almost nominal price. 



