40 
CULTIVATION   OF  VANILLA  IN  MEXICO. 
Vera  Cruz  and  Oaxaca,  between  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
degree  of  north  latitude.  The  natives,  familiar  with  the  diffi- 
culty of  penetrating  far  into  the  wilderness  of  forest,  and  the 
almost  impassable  thickets,  in  search  of  the  fruit,  which,  more- 
over, does  not  ripen  always  at  a  certain  time,  have  adopted  a 
mode  of  planting  by  which,  in  the  comparatively  small  space  of 
a  few  square  miles,  a  considerable  number  of  plants  have  been 
introduced,  whose  culture  requires  neither  effort  nor  care. 
All  that  is  necessary  is  to  clear  the  ground  around  the  trees  in 
the  forest  which  it  is  intended  to  plant,  and  to  set  two  cuttings 
at  the  foot  of  a  trunk,  or  to  fasten  a  few  small  pieces  of  the 
vine  upon  a  young  tree,  in  the  bark  of  which  they  immediately 
take  root,  send  down  air-roots  to  the  ground,  and  soon  obtain 
a  secure  footing.  The  Indians  prefer  to  select  the  trees  yield- 
ing balsamic  resin,  oil  or  gum,  which,  besides  serving  to  sup- 
port the  vine,  may  also  exert  a  more  or  less  favorable  influence 
upon  its  agreeable  smell.  The  cuttings  are  generally  32  to  36 
inches  in  length.  The  vanilla  begins  to  bear  fruit  in  the  third 
year  after  planting ;  each  shoot  affords  yearly  about  fifty  pods; 
and  continues  to  yield  this  number  for  thirty  to  forty  years, 
particularly  if  its  growth  has  not  been  obstructed  by  rank 
weeds  or  stifled  by  climbing  plants.  The  wild  vanilla,  {la  va- 
nilla* cimarona,)  occurring  in  even  the  thickest  part  of  the 
jungle,  affords  only  very  small  and  dry  fruits,  which  are  not 
prized ;  when  the  vines,  however,  of  this  plant  are  transferred 
to  a  cleared  and  prepared  soil,  its  pods  become  similar  to  those 
of  the  best  cultivated  vanilla,  (Vainilla  criolla.) 
The  points  most  noted  for  the  cultivation  of,  and  trade  in  va- 
nilla, are  the  Indian  Villages  of  Misantla,  Coliba,  Yucuantla, 
in  the  state  of  Vera  Cruz,  Nantla,  Santiago,  San  Andres  de 
Tuxtla,  Jaquila,  Sacatepec,  and  several  other  places  in  the 
western  division  of  the  Cordilleras,  in  the  State  of  Oaxaca,  as 
also  in  the  States  of  Tobasco,  Chiapas  and  Yucatan.  The  In- 
dians of  Misantla  gather  the  vanilla  in  the  mountains  and  for- 
ests of  Quilates,  where  the  plant  blooms  in  February  and  March. 
The  harvest  is  of  little  value  if,  during  this  period,  powerful 
*  The  name  vanilla,  properly  vainilla,  is  the  Spanish  diminutive  of  vaina, 
(pod.  legume,)  thus  signifying  a  small,  thin  pod  or  legume. 
