II 
VANILLA 
25 
V. jpompona is a native of Southern Mexico, 
Nicaragua, Panama, Surinam, Venezuela, and Trinidad, 
and has been cultivated in Martinique and Guadeloupe. 
The pods are thicker and more fleshy than those of V. 
planifolia, and fetch a lower price. 
HISTORY OF THE PLANT 
Vanilla was used by the Aztecs for flavouring 
chocolate before the discovery of America, and its use 
was adopted by the Spaniards. It was, according to 
Morren, brought to Europe about 1510, and first 
described by Hernandez in 1651, in the Rerum 
Medicarum Novae Hispanae Thesaurus. 
It was introduced into England in the beginning of 
the nineteenth century, it is said, by the Marquis of 
Blandford, and flowered and fruited in 1807. In 1812 
plants from the gardens of the Eight Hon. H. C. 
Greville were sent to Dr. Somm^, Director of the 
Botanic Garden of Antwerp, who in 1819 sent two 
plants to Buitenzorg in Java, where one that had 
survived the voyage flowered in 1825, but did not fruit. 
Professor Charles Morren of Liege was the first to 
produce fruits in quantity, and proved that Vanilla 
planifolia was the true vanilla of commerce. He 
showed the method of fertilisation by hand, and 
suggested that vanilla might be readily cultivated in 
tropical countries. 
Vanilla cultivation on a systematic basis was intro- 
duced into Java by M. Teysmann, Director of the 
Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg, in 1846. In Eeunion 
cultivation commenced between 1850 and 1856, and in 
1857, 1917 kilos were exported to France, increasing to 
44,000 kilos in 1874, of the value of 4,098,600 francs. 
From Eeunion it was introduced into Mauritius. It 
was also cultivated in Tahiti, Fiji, Zanzibar, and Java. 
The cultivation of vanilla soon became of great 
importance. In 1875 the British Consul at Eeunion 
states in his Eeport (May 1, 1875) : — 
