ause with too much oil they would
lose some of their delicious perfume.

They are then packed for the market in small bundles of 50 or 100 in
each, enclosed in lead foil, or tight metallic cases.

There are four local varieties, all differing in price and excellence;
viz., the vanilla _fina_, the _zacate_, the _rezacate_, and the
_vasura_.

One pod of vanilla is sufficient to perfume a pound and a half of
cacao. It is with difficulty reduced to fine particles, but it may be
sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into small bits, and grinding
these along with sugar.

As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness of a
swan's quill; straight, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, truncated
at the top, thinned off at the ends, glistening, wrinkled, furrowed
lengthwise, flexible, from five to ten inches long, and of a reddish
brown color. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, unctuous, very
brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, very small seeds.

The kind most esteemed in France is called _leq_ vanilla; it is about
six inches long, from one-fourth to one-third of an inch broad,
narrowed at the two ends and curved at the base; somewhat soft and
viscid, of a dark reddish color, and of a most delicious flavor, like
that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla _giorees_, when it is
covered with efflorescences of benzcoin acid, after having been kept
in a dry place, and in vessels not hermetically closed.

The second sort, called _vanilla simarona_, or bastard, is a little
smaller than the preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less
aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It is said to be the produce of
the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo.

A third sort, which comes from Brazil, is the _vanillon_, or large
vanilla of the French market; the _vanilla pamprona_ or _bova_ of the
Spaniards. Its length is from five to six inches, its breadth from
one-half to three-fourths of an inch. It is brown, soft, viscid,
almost always open, of a strong smell, but less agreeable than the
_leq_. It is sometimes a little spoiled by an incipient fermentation.
It is cured with sugar, and enclosed in tin plate boxes, which contain
from 20 to 60 pods[52]. The average annual import of vanilla into
Havre, in the five years ending 1841, was about 16 boxes; in 1842 it
was 30 packages.

TONQUIN BEANS.--The seeds of the Tongo tree (_Dipterix odorata_), a
native of Guiana, are the well-known tonquin beans used