The manner of setting out plantations in the Seychelles has undergone changes within the last twelve years. Formerly plantations were seen with the rows of vines planted so close together as scarce to leave room for workers to pass between them. The yield per acre under such conditions was sometimes enormous, but when disease once started in a vanillery thus arranged its destruction was rapid and complete, so this system has been mostly given up. Since the loss of so many close-lined plantations the distance between the rows has been increased. Living wood, i. e., small trees, are used as supports for the vines, these being festooned from fork to fork; but many planters have made use of hard-wood posts and bars, the former being notched on top and the latter laid in the notches, resting thus from 4 to 6 feet from the ground, according to fancy. Over these bars the plants are hung (Pl. 1), being looped up as growth is put on. Wire is sometimes also used instead of horizontal bars. It is much cheaper, but otherwise has disadvantages, notable among which is that it sways with wind and is liable to break the vines, the curvature being too sharp over such a small round surface. However, when plants thicken into a mass this last drawback mostly disappears. A third, and, as the writer believes, much better way of growing vanilla, is now more generally coming into practice. This is to plant each creeper on a tree of its own, and where land is cheap it is an advantage if these are well apart. So arranged, the general maintenance of a vanillery is certainly more expensive, inasmuch as isolated plants require more manure than when the same number are closely grouped together. The work of flower pollination and crop gathering is also more laborious. But more than a counterpoise to these disadvantages is the increased security this method of planting gives against wholesale destruction from disease; for when so arranged a sick plant can be removed and destroyed with greater chance of this being done before any of its neighbors become affected; whereas when growths of different plants are interwoven, either in their roots or shoots, it is difficult to know when enough has been taken up, and there is every likelihood of the disease becoming established beyond control. STARTING A VANILLERY. To give some notion of how a vanilla plantation is set out and carried on in this colony, it will be convenient to assume that the tree method of planting is the one adopted. A great variety of trees will serve the purpose. Here, on most properties, there is an abundance ready for the work; but of course where this is not the case suitable trees must first be planted. In selecting trees those should be chosen which do not grow too large, but give moderate foliage (about half shade) without ever losing all their leaves at once, and having plenty of branches from 5 to 7 feet from the ground, affording forks enough to train the vines through.