II 
VANILLA 
63 
portion of water in them. This varied from 32 per cent 
in a Mexican sample to 49*5 per cent in a Seychelles 
sample (which was mouldy). 
The table he gives shows that if the vanillas contain- 
ing a large percentage of water are not always mouldy, 
due perhaps to their freedom from infection (i,e. the 
absence of mildew on the drying stages), those that were 
found to be mouldy were among the wettest fruits. 
The proportion of water in a fruit is excessive when 
it contains over 35 or 36 per cent of moisture, by 
weight. The proportions of water in the mouldy fruits 
were as follows : — 
Seychelles— 49-5, 36-6, 36-4, 47*6. 
Comoro — 39*0, 39*3. 
The importers of vanilla have noticed that the 
vanillas of Mexico are less liable to mildew than those 
from the Mascarene Islands. In the latter region, 
instead of exposing the fresh pods to the full sun first, 
the* planters plunge them at once into hot water at 80° 
to 85° C., or some expose them to steam for a consider- 
able time. This destroys the waxy coat of the fruits 
more or less, according to the length of time they are 
exposed to the water and also to the temperature of the 
water. The vanillas of the Mascarene Islands are there- 
fore not as bright in appearance as those of Mexico. 
The absence or rarity of crystallisation {givre) in the 
Mexican vanilla is probably due to this, for in the 
Mascarene Islands vanilla crystallises readily, and it 
seems certain that the waxy coat of the fruit prevents 
the exudation and consequent crystallisation of the 
vanillin. 
M. Lecomte put the dried vanillas in a stove with 
wet air and found that there was a considerable differ- 
ence in the amount of water taken up by the different 
kinds. The Tahiti vanillas took up 49*9 per cent of 
water; Javanese 10*1 percent; the Mascarene Islands 
5*2 to 5*6 per cent. The excess of water taken up by 
the first two he attributes to the almost complete absence 
