VANILLA. 



of G-uiana, near the cataracts of the Orinoco, a great quantity of 

 the vanilla pods might be collected, the produce of which would 

 be still more abundant, if, according to the practice of the Mexicans, 

 the plant were disentangled from time to time from the other 

 creepers, with which it is intertwined and stifled. 



AYhen collected to prepare it for the market, about 12,000 of 

 the pods are strung like a garland by their lower end, as near 

 as possible to their foot-stalk ; the whole are plunged for an instant 

 into boiling water to blanch them ; they are then hung up in the 

 open air and exposed to the sun for a few hom^s. By some they 

 are wrapped in woollen cloths to sweat. Next day they are 

 lightly smeared with oil, by means of a feather or the fingers, 

 and are surrounded with oiled cotton to prevent the valves from 

 opening. As they become dry, on inverting their upper end they 

 discharge a viscid liquor from it, and they are pressed several 

 times with oiled fingers to promote its flow. The di'ied pods, like 

 the berries of pepper, change color under the drying operation, 

 grow brown, wrinkled, soft, and shrink to one-fourth of their 

 original size. In this state they are touched a second time with 

 oil, but very sparingly, because with too much oil they would lose 

 some of their delicious perfume. 



They are then packed for the market in small bundles of 50 or 

 100 in each, enclosed in lead foil, or tight metallic cases. 



There are four local varieties, all differing in price and excel- 

 lence ; viz., the vanilla jina, the zacate, the rezacate, and the 

 vasura. 



One pod of vanilla is sufficient to perfume a pound and a half 

 of cacao. It is with difficulty reduced to fine particles, but it 

 may be sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into small bits, and 

 grinding these along with sugar. 



As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness 

 of a swan's quill ; straight, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, 

 truncated at the top, thinned off" at the ends, glistening, wrinkled, 

 furrowed lengthwise, flexible, from five to ten niches long, and of 

 a reddish brown color. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, 

 unctuous, very brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, 

 very small seeds. 



The kind most esteemed in Prance is called leq vanilla ; it is 

 about six inches long, from one-fourth to one-third of an inch 

 broad, narrowed at the two ends and curved at the base ; some- 

 what soft and viscid, of a dark reddish color, and of a most de- 

 licious flavor, like that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla 

 giorees, when it is covered with efflorescences of benzcoin acid, 

 after having been kept in a dry place, and in vessels not her- 

 metically closed. 



The second sort, called vanilla simarona, or bastard, is a little 

 smaller than the preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less 

 aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It is said to be the produce 

 of the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo. 



A third sort, which comes from Brazil, is the vanillon, or large 



2 r 



