Few things give a better idea of the immense extent of the United States, than the fact that almost any vegetable product of the world will grow in some part of it. It now appears that we have the vanilla; not only growing, but native. Mr. A. H. Curtiss, the well-known Florida botanist, in a sketch of an exploration, furnished to the Florida Dispatch, says:

"During another cruise I penetrated the borders of the Everglades, at a point about thirty miles east of Cape Sable. The mainland shore was there skirted with a light forest of mahogany and other tropical trees. Following a creek which issued from it, we soon emerged into a round, freshwater lagoon, about a mile in diameter, in the center of which was a beautiful round island. A creek emptying into it from the north I call Vanilla Creek, because on its banks grows the only vanilla ever found in the United States. This species (Vanilla planifolia) is a thick, fleshy, leafless vine, which runs rampant among weeds and bushes, simulating, as it were, a slender, green snake in its color, form and curves. This little creek is one of the small outlets of the Everglades; it has cut a channel through the underlying coral-rock, and is bordered with a low growth of saw grass and mangroves only a few feet in height."