THE ORCHID REVIEW. 41 
P. bellatulum ¢ X P. Volonteanum 3; both crosses made on the same day, 
16th June, 1897. The former pod was not ripe until the 13th July, 1898, 
whereas the latter, although standing in a cooler house, was ripe on the 
25th February, 1898. 
Other instances in both classes could be readily given, but suffice it to 
say, the preponderating evidence is, that hybridising does weaken, to a 
greater or lesser extent, the seed-bearing plant. If, then, such is the case, 
it is not surprising that owners of such valuable plants as P. Stonei 
platytznium, P. Fairrieanum, and others, should be thary of subjecting 
them to such risk. This, however, would hardly apply to Paphiopedilums 
of more moderate value. 
REGINALD YOUNG. 
VANILLA CULTURE, 
A PAPER on “ Vanilla Culture as practised in the Seychelles Islands,” by 
S. J. Galbraith, has been issued as a Bulletin of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture. Mr. Galbraith, it appears, was for many years a successful 
planter in the Seychelles, where Vanilla culture is a very important 
industry, and the recent annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, Puerto 
Rico, and other tropical territory has added to the United States regions 
which, there is reason to believe, will prove admirably suited to the 
cultivation of this plant. 
Vanilla cuttings are said to have been first introduced into the 
Seychelles in 1866, probably from Bourbon, where the plant was grown 
extensively after sugar began to fail, about 1850, and the plantations have 
gradually extended, and for many years the colony’s prosperity has largely 
depended on Vanilla. It succeeds well from near sea-level up to 1,800 feet 
altitude, either in rich vegetable mould, greasy red clay, or coarse quartz 
sand or gravel, the latter being the best. Formerly, plantations were made 
with the rows of vines so close together as scarcely to leave room for 
workers to pass between, and the yield per acre was enormous, until the 
Vanilla disease appeared, but when a vanillery thus arranged was attacked, 
the destruction was rapid and complete. Now the rows are placed further 
apart. Small trees are used as supports for the vines, which are festooned — 
from fork to fork, but many planters have made use of posts and horizontal 
bars, or wires, over which the vines are hung in loops a few feet from the 
ground. Another method coming more generally into practice is to plant 
each vine on a tree of its own. A great variety of trees will serve, but 
" those of moderate leafage (about half shade), and plenty of forks, from five to 
seven feet from the ground, on which to train the vines, are best. In starting 
