VANILLA, a genus of parasitical orchidece, natives of tropical parts of America and of Asia, which spring at first from the ground, and climb with twining stems to the height of 20 or 30 ft. on trees, sending into them fibrous roots produced from nodes, from which the leaves also grow. These roots, drawing sap from the trees, sustain the plant, even after the principal root has-been destroyed. The stem is four-cornered and juicy; the leaves long and fleshy. The flowers are in spikes, and are very large, fleshy, and generally fragrant. The fruit is a pod-like, fleshy capsule, opening along the side. The vanilla of commerce was formerly supposed to be the fruit of aromatica, a native of tropical America, but is now ascertained to be chiefly, if not wholly, the fruit of V. a species indigenous to :Mexico, Guiana, Brazil, Peru, etc., and cultivated also in some of the West India islands, the Mauritius, and Ceylon. The fruit is cylindrical, about a span long, and less than half an inch thick It is gathered before it is fully ripe, dried in the shade, and steeped in a fixed oil, generally that of the cashew nut. It con tains within its tough pericarp a soft black pulp, in which many minute black seeds are imbedded. Vanilla appears in commerce in packets of 30 to 100 pods. wrapped up in cane-leaves and sheet-lead, or in small tin boxes. It has a strong, peculiar, agreeable and a warm sweetish taste. pulp is the most aromatic part. Benzoic acid is sometimes so abundant in it as to effloresce in fine needles. Vanilla is of little
use in medicine, although it is a gentle stimulant and promotes digestion, and in large doses is said to be a powerful aphrodisiac; but it is much used by perfumers, and also for flavoring chocolate, pastry, sweetmeats. ices, and liquors. Balsam of Peru is some times used as a substitute for it, as it is expensive, and the whole quantity imported into Britain does not exceed four or five cwt. annually. It is in very general use in South America. Several kinds are distinguished in commerce. The best is that called leg or lee, which is almost of a black color, and covered with crystals of benzoic acid. Another kind, less fragrant, dryer, and of a darker color, is known as simarona. A still inferior kind, with much broader, brown capsules, is called pompona, or bona. When the fruit of vanilla is fully ripe, a liquid (beanie de motile) exudes from it which is unknown in Europe, but is valued in Peru. Vanilla has ripened its fruit -in British hot-houses, but the flowers are apt to fall off without fruit being produced, unless care is taken to secure it by artificial impregnation. This is, in some measure, the case even in the East Indies, and iu some parts of America itself; and it is supposed that the presence of some insect, delighting in the flowers of the vanilla, makes it more product ive in other parts of America, especially in Mexico.