VANILLA (Neo-Lat.. from Sp. a•alWi1fo, ray nilln vanilla-bean, little pod, diminutive of 1.0110, pod. from Lat. vagina, sheath). A genus of epiphytic orchids, natives of tropical America and of Asia. The seedlings germinate in the ground, and climb with twining stems to a height of 20 to 30 feet on trees, upon which they feed and to which they cling by fibrous roots produced from the nodes. The stein is four-cor nered and juicy: the leaves long and fleshy; the very large fleshy, generally fragrant (lowers in spikes; the fruit, a pod-like fleshy capsule, open ing along the side. The vanilla of commerce is chiefly, if not wholly, the fruit of Vanilla plani folia. a species indigenous from Mexico to Peru, and cultivated in the West Indies, Mauritius, and Ceylon. The plant is propagated by cuttings and is allowed to climb trees that will afford it a partial shade. It furnishes a crop in three years and continues in bearing for thirty o• forty years. Since it is not self-fertile, artificial fertilization of the flowers is resorted to in the more successful plantations. The fruit is cylin
drical. 7 to S inches long. and less than half an inch thick. It is gathered before it is fully ripe, dried in the shade, and 'sweated.' to develop and fix the aroma. This manipulation, which is a kind of fermentation. requires great care. and upon it the value of the product largely depends.
The fruit contains within its tough pericarp a soft blaek pulp, in which many minute black are imbedded. It has a strong, peculiar, agrceahle odor. and a sweetish which is most pro nonneed in the interior pulp. It is much used by perfumers and also for flavoring chocolate, pastry, sweetmeats, ices, and liquors. The aro matic principle of vanilla is vanillin now produced artificially by several methods. Owing to the high price of the best vanilla beans, $10 to $15 per pound, the artificial product is used to a great extent, especially in adulterating the cheaper grades. It has not the delicate odor of the natural product and has a tendency td break up, forming undesirable compounds.