86 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE VANILLA PLANT. 



is separated from the female by a thin skin or pellicle, which hinders the 

 natural fecundation. We must, therefore, after the flower is completely 

 open, raise this skin with a small instrument, and, with a slight pressure of 

 the thumb and fore-finger, favour the communication. 



The process of fecundation is in operation from between eight and nine 

 o'clock in the morning till three o'clock in the afternoon, and may be ex- 

 tended to four or five o'clock ; but the pods that are not fecundated till so 

 late never acquire the length and thickness of those fecundated earlier in 

 the day. The instrument which serves to perform this operation is gene- 

 rally three or four inches long, thin, and must neither be sharp, or cutting, 

 nor triangular ; it would in such case wound the flower, or cause the pollen 

 to fall (the coloured dust in the anther), or else quite destroy the male. 



The cotons or nics (according to the terms employed in Reunion) of the 

 palm tree, or the cocoa-nut tree, are used in preference as instruments for 

 assisting the process of fecundation. 



After having served for these purposes, and in order to find them the 

 next morning, they should be stuck among the leaves of the Vanilla. Light 

 ladders are used to reach the flowers which cannot be reached by hand, to 

 assist their fecundation. The flowers ought not to be pressed too hard ; and 

 this operation ought always to be done with much care, and by practised 

 hands. 



The flowers of the Vanilla begin to appear from June, and fecundation 

 takes place in September. In the more elevated and colder regions, the 

 plant flowers later, and the pods ripen much slower. The earliest flowers 

 should be fecundated first in preference ; and the others may be pulled off, 

 after being well assured that five or six pods which have been preserved are 

 selected. 



It is usual to leave generally five or six pods in each cluster when the 

 Vanilla plant is heavily laden with flowers, if it is wished to obtain fine 

 fruit. But it sometimes happens that a fine plant yields several clusters ; 

 in that case, we have only to fecundate eight, or ten, or even twelve flowers, 

 as the plant may be able to nourish more fruit. 



The Harvest, or gathering of the Crop. — The crop of the Vanilla plant is 

 gathered when the pods have become properly ripe. We learn the pods 

 are ripe when their stalks commence to turn yellow, and when they assume 

 a yellow tinge, a new indication which points out when the pods should be 

 gathered. The pods gathered too green are dried with difficulty, are sub- 

 ject to mouldiness, and sometimes rot when the weather is too wet. Some 

 of the greenest even become white, and are good for nothing. 



It is important that the gathering of the crop should be carefully looked 

 after, and that it should be done by intelligent persons. 



The gathering of the crop should be proceeded with every two or three 

 days, in order to prevent the most forward pods from bursting open. It 

 happens, however, in spite of these precautions, that we meet with one here 

 and there, hidden among the leaves, that has been forgotten. These pods 

 that have been overlooked may be easily found by the delicate odour they 



