Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/920

Rh (P. C. Y.)

VANE (formerly spelt "fane," i.e. pennon, flag; cf. Ger. Fahne, Du. vaan, Fr. girouette, Ital. banderuola, Ger. Wetterjahne), the weathercock on a steeple. Vanes seem in early times to have been of various forms, as dragons, &c; but in the Tudor period the favourite design was a beast or bird sitting on a slender pedestal and carrying an upright rod, on which a thin plate of metal is hung like a flag, ornamented in various ways.

VAN HORNE, SIR WILLIAM CORNELIUS (1843-), Canadian financier, was born in Will county, Illinois, U.S.A., on the 3rd of February 1843, of Dutch descent. He was educated in the common schools of the state, and in 1857 began work as office boy in a railway station. His ability and force brought him to the front, and he rose till in 1881 he was appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific railway. For the successful completion of this great road his strong will and mental grasp were largely responsible, and he it was who not only controlled but steadily extended its operations during the lean years which followed. In 1884 he became vice-president of the line, in 1888 president, and in 1899 chairman of the board of directors. From 1885 onward he was more and more associated with every branch of Canadian mercantile and financial life, and as a publicist gave shrewd expression to his views on political and economic questions. After the Spanish-American War (1898) he became one of the chief promoters of railway and industrial enterprise in Cuba. In May 1894 he was knighted by Queen Victoria in acknowledgment of bis distinguished public services. He was also known as a patron of art and literature and an amateur painter of no little merit.

VANILLA, a flavouring agent largely used in the manufacture of chocolate, in confectionery and in perfumery. It consists of the fermented and dried pods of several species of orchids belonging to the genus Vanilla. The great bulk of the commercial article is the produce of V. planifolia, a native of south-eastern Mexico, but now largely cultivated in several tropical countries, especially in Bourbon, the Seychelles, Tahiti and Java. The plant has a long fleshy stem and attaches itself by its aerial rootlets to trees; the roots also penetrate the soil and derive a considerable portion of their nourishment from it. The leaves are alternate, oval-lanceolate and fleshy; the light greenish flowers form axillary spikes. The fruit is a pod

Vanilla Plant (Vanilla planifolia). A, shoot with flower, leaf and aerial rootlets; B, pod or fruit.

from 6 to 10 in. long, and when mature about half an inch in diameter. The wild plant yields a smaller and less aromatic fruit, distinguished in Mexico as Baynilla cimarona, the cultivated vanilla being known as B. corriente.