OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE VANILLA PLANT. 35 



plants must be covered, palm leaves being the best for this purpose, and 

 they will require to be watered much more frequently than would be neces- 

 sary if they had their natural shelter. The young plants should be put in 

 the earth. In the event of the slip or sucker being too long, some of the 

 knuckles or joints (neeuds) must be buried in the earth ; one joint when 

 the slip has three, two when it has four, and four or five when you have 

 a very long plant. These slips or suckers should be buried in the earth, 

 their tendrils hooked up on the side of the tree, and well supported with 

 two or more flat bands, according to their length. 



Round string or cord should not be used, because it is found to stifle or 

 choke the plant. The leaf of the cocoa-nut tree affords the best support for 

 this purpose. If the weather is dry, or partially so, it will be necessary — 

 it may be indispensably necessary — to prepare the soil intended for a plan- 

 tation. Manure would be injurious. Young plants with roots, for example, 

 that may have been planted with manure are likely to become rotten. 



Vegetable manure is not so heating, composed of the leaves from the 

 Blackwood tree, or other kinds of thick leaves. This manure is very good, 

 if it be not preferable, but it rots the roots of the Vanilla plant, and par- 

 ticularly the more tender and delicate roots of the young plants. It is 

 necessary that new plants should be regularly watered for some time after 

 they are planted, more particularly in dry localities. Plants of Vanilla, if 

 put in the earth in the depth of winter, lose their hearts, and often perish. 



The earth should be trodden down over each plant after it has been 

 watered, to avoid the action of the air, which is very prejudicial. If a 

 Vanilla plantation has been made on land adjacent to the sea shore, it will 

 be necessary to shelter it well from the salt sea air, which will burn up 

 the plants, and render them sickly or withered. The pruning of the 

 training and sheltering trees should be so managed as to allow for half the 

 day as much sun as shade, and even more sun than shade. 



The pods that have too much shade are long, soft, and slender, and are 

 difficult to ripen ; while, on the contrary, when they are judiciously exposed 

 to the sun, they become thick, round, firm, and contain much more aroma. 

 As regards the character of the land, the sheltered side is preferable, in 

 order that the Vanilla plants should not be exposed to the wind, and that 

 they may receive more warmth. 



A circle of flints or stones around each training tree is indispensable, to 

 retain the manure placed on the soil ; afterwards the evaporation may be 

 avoided by means of flat stones, to keep the plants cool, to prevent the rain 

 water from uncovering the roots, and, besides, to preserve them from ani- 

 mals. The manure placed under these stones is renewed once a year, a 

 little while before the plants begin to bud. 



The slips or suckers may be placed in a seed bed, in a plot of ground that 

 has been dug up, and that is partially in the shade, at the distance of five 

 or six inches from one another, at the side of protecting stakes, up which 

 the new shoots climb readily. 



On the Fecundation of the Vanilla Flower. — In the Vanilla flower, the male 



D 2 



