556  Epiphytic  Character  of  the  Vanilla  Plant.  {AmN™.%h2arm' 
commonly  regarded,  even  by  botanists,  as  being  parasitic.  But 
Mirbel  showed  that  many  plants,  hitherto  considered  parasites,  did 
not  live  upon  the  sap  of  other  plants,  but  needed  such  plants  merely 
for  support,  and  such  apparent  parasites  were  called  epiphytes.  As 
early  as  1830  Nees  von  Esenbeck  and  Ebermaier  (Handbuch,  I,  p. 
266)  stated  that  the  stem  of  the  vanilla  plant  climbs  upon  high 
trees,  fastening  itself  upon  the  bark  by  means  of  aerial  roots.  Sub- 
stantially the  same  statement  is  made  by  Fluckiger  and  Hanbury  in 
Pharmacographia,  page  657  ;  also  by  Baillon  (Traite  de  botanique 
medicale,  page  1438),  who  carefully  distinguishes  the  "  racines 
adventives  "  of  epiphytes  from  the  "  sucoirs  "  (haustoria)  of  para- 
sites. 
While  in  the  cases  cited  the  term  "  epiphyte"  is  not  used,  the 
description  does  not  leave  any  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  plant.  In  addition  to  these  we  quote  from  the  works 
of  several  other  botanists,  who^  like  the  above,  have  studied  the 
plant  under  cultivation. 
Bentley  and  Trimen,  for  whose  "  Medicinal  Plants"  plate  272  was 
drawn  from  a  specimen  in  the  Royal  Gardens  at  Kew,  where  the 
plant  flowers  in  May,  state  that  "  this  singular  plant  is  found  in  the 
hot,  moist  woods  of  several  states  of  southeast  Mexico,  climbing  and 
epiphytic  on  forest  trees!' 
Professor  A.  Tschirch  recently  devoted  a  year  or  two  in  different 
parts  of  the  East  Indies  to  the  study  of  most  of  the  important 
medicinal  and  economic  plants  of  that  region,  and  has  published 
the  results  of  his  observations  in  a  most  interesting  and  instructive 
work,  entitled  "  Indische  Heil-  und  Nutzpflanzen  und  deren  Cultur" 
(Berlin,  1892).  The  book  contains  photographic  reproductions  from 
Java  and  Ceylon  of  a  vanilla  plantation,  and  of  single  plants,  show- 
ing their  habit,  of  Vanilla  planifolia  under  cultivation  and  run  wild. 
In  describing  the  culture  of  "  this  unpretentious  epiphytic  plant,  for 
which  neither  elegance  of  growth  nor  of  the  flower  can  be  claimed," 
Prof.  Tschirch  explains  that  "  since  the  vanilla  is  a  climbing  epiphyte, 
its  caulomes  need  a  support.  The  nature  of  this  support  is  entirely 
immaterial,  for  the  vanilla  plant,  like  ivy,  does  not  produce  hausto- 
ria penetrating  into  the  supporting  plant,  but  merely  fastening 
organs  (Haftorgane).  .  .  .  Since  the  vanilla  plant  does  not  enter 
into  an  organic  union  with  its  support,  it  cannot  take  any  nutriment 
from  the  bark  of  the  latter'"  (loc.  cit,  p.  122)." 
