alternate, distichous, broadly ovate, acuminated, ofa full 
ereen and glossy colour, paler beneath, five to seven-nerved, 
the nerves connected by lesser transverse ones or veins, and 
prominent beneath. Petioles rounded, from half an inch to- 
nearly an inch long. Catkins opposite the leaves, stalked, 
from three to six inches long, slender, drooping, apparently 
some are male, others female, while sometimes the flowers 
are furnished both with stamens and pistil ; these catkins 
are mostly confined to the upper part of the branches; ob- 
serving, Mr. Guinpine remarks, no season ; for at the same 
time and on the same plant, flowers and fruit may be seen 
in every stage of progress. The number of stamens is three 
to a flower. The pistil is crowned with three recurved 
stigmas. As the fruit, which is so well known as a condi 
ment, ripens, it is at first green, then red, afterwards black. 
This plant, like the Pirer Betle, figured in our last nut 
ber, has, I believe, never blossomed in our stoves, and We 
are, consequently, thankful to Mr. Guizpine for enabling 
us to give a representation of a flowering specimen of this” 
very valuable spice. It is a native of the hotter parts of 
India, where it is most extensively cultivated, and where it 
constitutes a highly important article of commerce. It was 
known to the Greeks in the time of Turopnrastus ant 
Dioscoripes, who, as well as the Romans, distinguished | 
between the white and the black pepper. And whilst the 
use of the Betel Pepper is confined almost wholly to the 
Eastern nations, the common Pepper is an article in ger 
eral use throughout every part of the civilized world. SUH, 
it is in Asia, where the stomach is weakened by excess! 
“eee produced by the heat of the climate, by 
umid atmosphere, and a too general addiction to veg 
able diet, that it is employed asa powerful stimulant. 
im a medical point of view, it has been found to be 
excellent tonic, calculated to create appetite and to promote 
digestion. ~ 
___ Pepper of the shops, as is well known, is the fruit of this 
- plant: and it is called black Pepper, while it is in @ stale 
of nature, covered by its external coat. White Pepper 
the fruit of the same species deprived of its external co# 
which is accomplished, by macerating the fruit or grains 
water, when the coat swells and bursts. It is afterwal 
dried in the sun, and by friction and winnowing cleared ® 
the coat. It is then of a paler colour, but as the husk 
bark contains a powerful principle, it is evident that ™® 
white Pepper loses much of its stimulati arte 
inferior to the black. eS ee 
