NOTE ON VANILLA. 
191 
height, by seizing on and attaching itself to the trunks of con- 
tiguous trees, by means of radical fibres, which insert them- 
selves into the bark. Its leaves are alternate, sessile, thick, 
fleshy, a little coriacious, smooth, shining, slightly undulat- 
ed upon the borders. The flowers are large, forming clusters 
of five or six, purple, odoriferous. The five superior divi- 
sions of the calyx, are lanceolate, a little undulated, the lip 
is oboval, grooved and hollow, a little sinuous on the margin. 
The fruit is from five to eight inches long, and two to 
four lines in diameter, straight, obscurely triangular, with 
a suture between the valves, somewhat pointed at the 
end of attachment, obtuse at the opposite ; color reddish 
brown or black, shining; wrinkled longitudinally. The sur- 
face is somewhat viscid. Internally, the fruit is filled with 
an innumerable quantity of black seeds, dull, and surrounded 
by a pulp of the same color, small in quantity and intermin- 
gled with medullary matter of a red color. This fruit impro- 
perly goes by the name of the vanilla bean, an appellation 
derived from its appearance. Vanilla is stated to come from 
vaina, or sheath, in Spanish, of which the diminutive is 
Vainilla. The Spaniards of Guaiana call it Banilla, and the 
Mexican name is Tilxochitl. 
The Vanilla plant is a native of South America, and some 
of the West India Islands. It grows particularly in Peru, 
Brazil, Guaiana, and is also found in Mexico. In some colo- 
nial positions it is cultivated, as at Cayenne, St. Domingo and 
the Isle of France. Like all the Orchidese, however, it is 
difficult to cultivate, and does not afford fruit of much value 
until seven years of age. The difficulty of cultivation must 
arise from its peculiar habit which is that of a parasite; 
although having its root in the ground, it soon becomes in- 
dependent of this attachment, and when cut from it, will sus- 
tain itself by the radicles penetrating the bark of the trees 
which support it. It, likewise, prefers sombre, shady situations. 
Vanilla is collected before it attains perfect maturity, — this 
is to avoid the separation of the valves and the escape of a 
thick fluid, which forms in it, and constitutes what is known 
