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MISCELLANY. 
3. Mestiza. The unripe fruit is green, with brown spots : more 
cylindrical than the genuine, and easily dehiscing on becoming dry. 
4. La Puerca. The fruit is much smaller than the first kind, and 
in the unripe state is dark green ; when drying, it evolves an offen- 
sive smell, from which it is also called hog vanilla (yanille de cochon.) 
5. La Pomyona (v. pompona, Schiede.) The fruit is shorter and 
thicker than No. 1, and has a very delicate epidermis. The smell is 
pleasant and is particularly obvious when becoming dry, but is not so 
agreeable as that of the first sort ; in time it loses its smell, and hence 
is but little valued. This probably is Bova thick vanilla (v. bovffie) of 
some authors, and is known in France under the name of Vavillon. 
The harvest begins about the month of December, and the yellow- 
ish green colour of the fruit, which was formerly green , indicates its 
ripeness. Often, however, the fruits are gathered before they are ripe, 
partly by the proprietors, partly also by persons who like to reap what 
others have sown. The pedunculus is always left on the fruit. After 
the harvest the fruits are allowed to dry a little till the pedunculus 
loses its green colour, whereupon the dressing of the vanilla com- 
mences in the following manner: — Straw mats covered with woollen 
blankets are spread on the ground ; when the latter are well warmed 
through by the sun, the fruits are spread on them, so that they are 
equally exposed to the sun. Then they are wrapped in the blankets, 
placed in boxes, covered with cloths, and still further exposed to the 
sun. Within twelve hours they should have assumed a coffee-brown 
colour ; if this is not the case, the process is repeated on the following 
day. Should the weather be unfavourable, artificial heat is employed. 
In order to make the quality of the vanilla still more perfect, they are 
again daily exposed to the sun on mats for about two months. Practice 
soon teaches the cultivator to know when the fruits are sufficiently 
dry, to which point particular attention must be paid, as they other- 
wise lose in weight and quality. When the dressing is finished, the 
fruits are tied up in bundles of fifty and packed in tin boxes. It hap- 
pens, however, not unfrequently, that inferior sorts, such as the puerca 
and pompona, are placed in the middle of the bundles, instead of the 
genuine sorts ; of which five kinds are distinguished, viz., primiera, 
which must be twenty-four centim. long, and propoitionately thick, 
and filled with pulp to the pedunculus ; chica Jina, which is shorter 
than the foregoing, so thattwo fruits are couuted for one ; sacate, which 
is less thick than the first, and at the base not quite filled with pulp ; 
resacate, which is small, dry^ and four are reckoned for one ) these are 
the fruits which have been gathered before they were ripe • and basura } 
the most inferior sort, the fruit of which is very small, spotted, and cut 
or broken. 
