6l2 
Botany  and  Materia  Medica. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   December,  1895. 
Habitat,  southeastern  Mexico,  in  the  Vera  Cruz  district,  Misantla 
and  Yucatan,  also  in  British  Honduras,  Guatemala  and  Costa  Rica. 
Cultivated  in  the  Mascarene  Islands,  Java,  the  West  Indies,  and 
other  parts  of  the  tropics. 
This  species  produces  the  true  Mexican  vanilla  of  commerce, 
which  has  been  known  ever  since  the  discovery  of  America  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  which  was  described  by  Clusius  as  long  ago  as  1605, 
under  the  name  of  Lobus  Oblongus  Aromaticus.  Its  early  history 
is  much  confused,  as,  for  a  long  time,  three  or  four  species  were 
confounded  together,  and,  even  when  the  present  one  was  described, 
it  was  not  known  as  the  source  of  the  vanilla  of  commerce,  which 
was  then,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  thought  to  be  the  V.  aro  - 
matica,  Sw.  [i.  e.,  V.  inodora  Schiede).  It  was  introduced  to  culti- 
vation about  1739,  but  was  probably  soon  afterwards  lost.  The 
Marquis  of  Blanford  reintroduced  it  about  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  and  it  flowered  in  the  collection  of  the  Right  Hon. 
Charles  Greville,  at  Paddington,  in  1807,  whence  it  can  be  directly 
traced  to  various  continental  gardens,  to  Java,  where  Blume  rede- 
scribed  it  under  the  name  of  V.  viridiflora,  and  to  Reunion,  thus 
originating  the  present  industry  in  that  island.  Salisbury's  Myo- 
broma  fragrans  (1807)3  was  drawn  from  the  same  individual  as  the 
original  V.  planifolia,  Andrews.  V.  sativa  and  V.  sylvestris,  of 
Schiede,  are.  chiefly  known  by  the  original  descriptions,  but  are 
evidently  forms  of  the  same  species,  differing  only  in  the  length  of 
the  fruit ;  the  former  being  a  cultivated  race,  and  the  latter  a 
wild  original. 
Vanilla  pheantha  Rchb.  f. — General  habit  of  the  preceding. 
Bracts  fewer  and  larger,  broadly  elliptical-oblong,  sub-obtuse ;  3  to 
7  lines  long,  2  to  4  lines  broad.  Flowers  larger ;  pedicels  green. 
Sepals  and  petals,  2^  to  2^  inches  long;  greenish-yellow.  Lip 
greenish-yellow,  whitish  in  the  throat,  apex  obscurely  three-lobed 
and  nearly  truncate,  nerves  not  carinate  in  front,  disc  with  a  pair  of 
hairy  lines  extending  from  the  central  tuft  of  hairs  towards  the  base, 
Capsule  linear-oblong,  obscurely  compressed;  3  inches  long,  y2  inch 
broad. 
Habitat,  West  Indies,  Cuba,  St.  Vincent,  Trinidad.  This  is  an 
indigenous  species  which  has  been  confused  with  V.  planifoliay 
Andr.,  though  it  is  easily  distinguished  by  its  much  larger  flowers, 
lip  without  verrucose  disc,  and  its  much  shorter  fruit.  It  is  cultivated 
