342 
Properties. Vanilla is one of the most delightful aromatics kno-svn ; it is 
used in the manufacture of Chocolate, of Liqueurs, and of various articles of con- 
fectionary. The substance called by this name in the shops is the dried fruit 
of Vanilla aromatica, and probably other species ; it contains a great quantity of 
essential oil, and a good deal of benzoic acid. F^e. See also Linncea. 4. 573, 
for some account of the cultivation of the plant in Mexico. 
GENERA. 
Vanilla, Plum. 
Myrobroma, Salisb. 
Epistephium, Kth. 
Order CCXLV. APOSTASIACE^. 
Apostasies, Lindl. Nixus Plantarum, p. 22. (1833) ; Blume in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 2. 2. 91. 
(1834). 
Essential Character. — Calyx and Corolla each consisting of 3 similar pieces. An- 
thers 2 or 3, sessile upon a short column, erect, 2-celled, opening longitudinally ; pollen 
cohering in 3s or 4s according to Mr. Bauer (Illust. fruct. t. 15), — in single oval grains 
with a longitudinal furrow according to Mr. Griffith (Letter dated Merqui Dec. 2%, 1834) 
and Blume. Ovary 3-celled, with 3 polyspermous placentae in the axis ; oww/es with their 
integuments very distinct and much shorter than the protruded nucleus (Griffith); style 
filiform with a slightly 3-lobed stigma as long as the anthers, and adhering with their 
filaments into a short column. \_Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved; the valves bearing the disse- 
piment in the middle, but cohering at the apex and base. Seeds very numerous, minute, 
ovate and with a skin fitting the nucleus, or scobiform with a membranous testa loose at 
each end. Blume. 1 — Perennial herbaceous plants. Stem simple or branched. Leaves firm, 
thin, sheathing at the base. Flowers in simple or compound terminal racemes. 
Affinities. Very closely allied to Orchidacese., from which they differ 
essentially in having a 3-celled fruit, with loculicidal dehiscence, and in the 
style being altogether free from the stamina for the principal part of its length. 
There are many admirable observations upon Apostasia itself in Brown s Ob- 
servations on the organs and mode of fecundation in Orchidece and Asclepiadea, 
and some further information is given by Blume in the place above quoted. 
The order seems as if connecting Orchidaceae and Hypoxideae. If Rhyncan- 
thera is correctly represented by Blume, its 3 -locular ovary will refer it here, 
while the structure of its column would keep it in Orchidace^. The essential 
character of this order is, however, framed without reference to it. 
Geography. Found in damp woods in the hotter parts of India. 
Properties. Unknown. 
GENERA. 
Apostasia, Bl. 
Neuwiedia, Bl. 
? Rhyncanthera, Bl. 
Group III. 
Essential Character. — Flowers coloured, in all cases formed upon a ternary plan. 
Ovary superior. 
