Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/94

 62 MEXICO. VANILLA. — {Epidendrum Vanilla.) This is one of the endless variety of parasitic plants, with which the forests of Veracruz abound. It was long thought to be confined, almost entirely, to the district of Misantla, at the foot of the mountain of Qiiilate, (in Veracruz,) and to the vicinity of the village of Teutila, in the state of Oaxaca ; but it has recently been discovered in great abundance in Tabasco, upon the mountains near the coast, where, during the last two years, some hundreds of millares have been col- lected, with every probability of a farther increase. In Oaxaca and Veracruz, the cultivation is entirely in the hands of the Indians. It is a very simple process, for a shoot of the Vanilla, when planted at the foot of the tree destined to support it, requires no other care than to be freed, occasion- ally, from the hardier creepers, by which its progress is im- peded. It gives fruit the third season, and continues to pro- duce for thirty, or forty, years without interruption. The pods are sold by the Millar, or thousand, subdivided into mazos, or packets of fifty pods each. To prepare these for the market, the Vanilla is dried for some hours in the sun, and then wrapped in woollen cloths, to sweat it ; after which it is again exposed to the sun, dried, and packed up. There are several different qualities of Vanilla, designated as Grande fina, Chica fina, Zacate, Rezacate, and Basura. The best of these sold, before the Revolution, at Veracruz, for about forty-four dollars a Millar, from nine to eighteen hundred of which were exported annually. JALAP. Convolvulus Jalapcf. This drug takes its name from the town of Jalapa, in the vicinity of which it is found. It is a root of a parasitic plant, with leaves like the ivy, and a red flower, which has the property of shunning the light,