VAN 
•s 
•wife they will not thrive. They require alfo to be 
Shaded from the fun by trees, fo that if thefe are 
planted at the foot of the Hernandia, or Jack-in-a- 
box, whofe leaves are very large and afford a good 
Shade, they will Succeed better than when they are ex- 
pofed in Angle pots alone , and as thefe plants require 
the fame degree of heat in winter, they will agree well 
together. 
When thefe plants are defigned for propagation in the 
w r arm parts of America, there is nothing more re- 
quired than to make cuttings of about three or four 
joints in length, which Should be planted clofe to the 
items of trees, in low marfhy places •, and to keep 
down other troublefome plants, which, if permitted to 
grow about the cuttings before they are well rooted, 
would overbear and deftroy them ; but after they are 
eftabliflied, and have fattened their fhoots to the items 
of the trees, they are not in much danger of being 
injured by neighbouring plants, and when the ground 
is kept clear from weeds, the plants will be much 
better nouriflied. 
Thefe plants do not produce flowers until they are 
grown ftrong, fo that the inhabitants affirm. That it 
is flx or feven years from the planting to the time of 
their bearing fruit ; but when they begin to flower and 
fruit, they continue for feveral years bearing,, and this 
without any culture j and as it is a commodity which 
bears a good price, it is well worth cultivating in fe- 
veral of the Engliffi fetdements, efpecially as they will 
grow on moift woody places, where the land is not 
cleared from timber. 
The method ufed to prepare the fruit is, when it turns 
of a yellow colour, and begins to open, to gather it, 
and lay it in fmall heaps to ferment two or three days, 
in the fame manner as is pradifed for the Cocoa or 
Chocolate pods ; then they fpread them in the fun to 
dry, and when they are about half dried, they flat 
them with their hands, and afterwards rub them over 
with the oil of Palma Chrifti, or of the Cocoa j then 
they expofe them to the fun again to dry, and after- 
ward they rub them over with oil a fecond time, then 
they put them in fmall bundles, covering them with 
the leaves of the Indian Reed, to preferve them. 
Thefe plants produce but one crop of fruit in a year, 
which is commonly ripe in May, fit for gathering, 
for they do not let them remain on the plants to be 
perfectly mature, becaufe then they are not fo fit for 
ufe ; but when they are about half changed yellow, 
they efteem them better for keeping, than when they 
are changed to a dark brown colour, at which time 
the fruit fplits, and ihews a great quantity of fmall 
feeds, which are inclofed within it. While the fruit is 
green, it affords no remarkable fcent, but as it ripens, 
it emits a moft grateful aromatic odour. When the 
fruit begins to open, the birds attack them and devour 
all the feeds very greedily, but do not eat any other 
part of the fruit. 
The fruit which are brought to Europe, are of a dark 
brown colour, about fix inches long, and fcarce an 
inch broad ; they are wrinkled on the outfide, and 
full of a vaft number of black feeds, like grains of 
fand, of a pleafant fmell, like Balfam of Peru. 
The fruit is only ufed in England as an ingredient in 
Chocolate, to which it gives a pleafant flavour to fome 
palates, but to others it is very difagreeable ; but the 
Spaniffi phyflcians in America ufe it in medicine, and 
efteem it grateful to the ftomach and brain, for ex- 
pelling of wind, to provoke urine, to refift poifon, 
and cure the bite of venomous animals. 
As this plant is fo eafily propagated by cuttings, it is 
very ftrange that the inhabitants of America ffiould 
negled to cultivate it, efpecially as it is an ingredient 
in their Chocolate, which is fo much drank all over 
America ; but as the Englilh have in a manner quite 
negleded the culture of the Cocoa, it is no wonder 
they ffiould negled this, fince the former was culti- 
vated in great plenty by the Spaniards in Jamaica, 
while that ifland remained in their poffeffion, ft) that 
the Engliffi had an example before them, if they 
would have followed it 5 whereas the Vanilla was not 
V A P 
found growing there, and therefore it is not to be fun- 
pofedj that the perfons who were fo indolent as to 
quit the culture of many valuable plants then growing: 
on the fpot, ffiould be at the trouble of introducing 
any new ones. 0 
VAPOR I FERGUS fignifies caufing or producing 
vapours. 
VAPOUR is by fome defined to be a thin vehicle of 
water, or other 'humid matter, filled or inflated with 
air, which, being rarefied to a certain degree by the 
adion of heat, afcends to a certain height in the at- 
mofphere, where it is fufpended till it returns in form 
of rain, fnow, or the like. 
Some ufe the term Vapour indifferently for all fumes 
emitted, either from moift bodies, as' fluids of any 
kind, or from dry bodies, as fulphur, &c. but Sir 
Ifaac Newton, and other authors, better diftino-uiffi 
between humid and dry fumes, calling the latter ex- 
halations. 
VAPOURS are defined by naturalifts to be thofe 
watery particles which are fevered from others by the 
motion of the air, and are carried about in it feveral 
ways according as the wind, or warmnefs of the air 
ferves ; they rife out of the fea, rivers, lakes, and 
other waters. 
As to their hanging in the air, we may obferve, in a 
hot day, when there is no wind ftirring, fuch a com- 
pany of Vapours to rife out of moift ground, as make 
thick fogs, which are fometimes higher, and fome- 
times lower, as the multitude and motion of the Va- 
pours happen to be. They are to be feen as weft up- 
on high grounds as low. 
They are eafily diffipated by the wind, and particu- 
larly if it be a drying wind. 
The fun has the fame effed upon them, and we com- 
monly fee, when there are thick fogs about fun-rifing, 
they difappear a little after it is up. 
It is evident that fogs confift of aqueous particles ra- 
refied, becaufe they mightily bedew every thing than 
lies open to them. Thefe particles, being foundly 
moved, muft needs fly aloft into the air, but if their 
motion be fomething faint, they play about the furfaoe 
of the earth ; for this is agreeable to the laws of mo- 
tion, that fuch things as are about the globe of the 
earth, the more they are moved, the more they re- 
cede from the center of the earth. 
Again, thefe fogs arife out of all places, mountain- 
ous or champaign, and continue till they are difpell- 
ed by wind or heat ; but they continue longeft in the 
lowed grounds, becaufe thole places are fulleft of 
moifture, and are not fo much expofed to the winds ; 
but wherever they be when the wind riles upon them, 
they are diffipated and driven about, till we lee no- 
more of them. 
So in like manner, the heat of the fun, by putting 
them into a brilker motion, either diffipates them by 
rarefadion, or raifes them higher, and forms them 
into clouds. 
And whereas fometimes the fogs ftink, it is not be- 
caufe they come from flunking water, but becaufe the 
Vapours are mixed with fulphureous exhalations, 
which fmell fo-. Perhaps thefe exhalations would fly 
up diredly to the clouds, if there were no fogs to hold 
them, and fo would not affed the fenfe of fnrelling 
but when they are once entangled and blended with 
the fog, they laft as long as that does. 
The clouds are higher than the fogs •, they hang in 
the air, and are carried about in it by the winds. The 
clouds are of various figures, and fometimes fo thin, 
that the rays of the fun pafs through them, but at 
other times they are thick enough to intercept and 
obftrud them •, they alfo appear of feveral colours, as 
white, red, and fometimes very dark. 
The thicknefs of the clouds proceeds from the clofe- 
nefs of the vaporous particles one to another, and their 
thinnefs from the diftance of thofe particles one from 
another, of which there are feveral caufes. When they 
are very thin, they leave fo many interftices, that the 
rays of the fun dart through them in many places, but 
are intercepted in others. 
As 
