File:Vanilla culture in Puerto Rico (1948) (20381846168).jpg

Title: Vanilla culture in Puerto Rico
Identifier: CAT31289489 (find matches)
Year: 1948 (1940s)
Authors: Childers, Norman Franklin, 1910-
Subjects: Vanilla; Orchids
Publisher: Washington, D. C. : U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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VANILLA CULTURE IN PUERTO RICO 45 Charles Moran of Liege was probably the first man to obtain large crops of beans by hand pollination in 1836 (21). In 1838 Moran's technique was successfully repeated by Nermann of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris (21). In 1841 Edmund Albius, a former slave in Reunion, developed a practical method for artificial pollina- tion which is being used today in commercial vanilleries. The reason hand pollination is necessary is because there is a fleshy flap known as the rostellum or lip, which lies between the male and fe- male organs, as shown in figure 33. It is necessary to lift this flap
Text Appearing After Image:
Figure 32.—A, An abnormal flower cluster of Vanilla fragrans (Salisb.) Ames. Note proliferation of flower buds from the basal bracts of the peduncle. This was found to be associated with the diseased condition known as "blossom blast" and fruit rot. B, This vanilla shoot is unusual in that it is bearing single beans at two nodes. Late and incomplete flower formation was probably caused by injury to the shoot tip. and press the anther or male organ, as shown in figures 34 to 37, against the lower stigmatic surface of the female organ. Thus, the pollen grains from the anther are smeared upon the sticky surface of the pistil, where they germinate and send pollen tubes into the pistil until they reach the female eggs and fertilization takes place, forming the seed. If fertilization takes place within a matter of hours, the ovary will remain a part of the raceme and begin to enlarge into a pod. If fertilization does not take place, the flower will wilt and drop within 1 to 2 days. The bean increases in size rapidly after pollination, as

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