NEW OR NOTEWORTHY ORCHIDS 
[Fig. 1:1, mature fruit nearly natural size. 2, labellum with 
tip of column removed in order to show crest, about natural 
size. 3, column about natural size.] 
Ecuador, Oriente del Norte, in the district near Tena, 
Oscar C. Felton, November 9, 1923. (The description was 
drawn from this material.) 
Bolivia, Beni, 0. E. White 1821, December 3, 1921. 
Rank growing species in swampy woods. Common. Fruits 
make good vanilla. 900-1000 feet altitude: Ixiamas, 0. E. 
White 1115, December 13, 1921. Best kind here. Fruits 
fragrant. Vine common, climbing over small trees in damp 
forest, often 15-20 feet long. 1000-1500 feet altitude. 
Vanilla pompona Schiede in Linnaea 4 (1829) 573; 
Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1840) 437; Klotzsch in Bot. Zeit. 4 
(1846) 566; Desv. in Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, 6 (1846) 120; 
Cogn. in Mart. FI. Bras. 3, pt. 4 (1893) 147; Rolfe in Kew 
Bull. (1895) 176; Rolfe in Journ. Linn. Soc. 32 (1896) 465. 
Vanilla grandiflora Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1840) 435. 
Vanilla guianensis Splitg. in Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 2, 15 
(1841) 279 in parte. 
Vanilla surinamensis Reichb. f. in Nederl. Kruidk. 
Arch. 4 (1858) 321 in parte. 
Vanilla lutescens Moq. ex Dupuis in Rev. Hort. ser. 4 
(1856) 121, fig. 24; Lem. in FI. des Serres 21 (1875) 115, t. 
2218-19. 
In addition to Vanilla odorata Presl, V. pompona is culti¬ 
vated in Ecuador for its aromatic properties. Although not 
now an important source of commercial vanilla, its fruits 
were at one time, under the name of “vanillons,” a well-known 
tropical product, and may have furnished the “vanilloes” 
referred to by James Petiver in 1693 as an imperfectly known 
and “most earnestly desired” article of commerce. From 
information now at hand, it is very probable that V. pompona 
is feral in Ecuador near Guayaquil. Mr. Felton has intro¬ 
duced it on his hacienda near Tena on the banks of the Napo 
River, having obtained his plants from the natives. The 
flowers, which last but a day, are large and showy, creamy 
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