488 PIPERACEA (Wright). | Piper. 
filament, cells 2, distinct or confluent, dehiscing longitudinally. 
Ovary sessile, 1-celled and l-ovuled in the South African genera ; 
stigmas 1-5; ovule orthotropous. Fruit in the South African 
genera indehiscent, baccate. Seed globose, ovoid or oblong ; testa 
usually membranous or rather fleshy ; endosperm small ; perisperm 
copious, farinaceous ; embryo minute. 
Herbs or shrubs, erect or climbing ; leaves usually alternate and entire, rarely 
opposite or verticillate ; stipules none or adnate to the petiole ; flowers minute, 
usually forming dense spikes, each subtended by a peltate bract. 
Disrrip. Species about 1000, spread through the warmer regions of both 
hemispheres ; most numerous in Tropical America. 
I. Piper.—Shrubs. Stamens 2-6 ; anther-cells usually distinct. Stigmas 2-3. 
II. Peperomia,—Herbs, Stamens 2 ; anther-cells usually confluent, Stigma 1. 
I. PIPER, Linn. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, usually forming dense 
cylindrical spikes, rarely racemes. Perianth none. Stamens 2-4, 
rarely more ; filaments short ; anther-cells usually distinct. Ovary 
sessile, 1-celled, l-ovuled, obtuse or rostrate ; stigmas 2—4, distinct, 
erect or recurved. Berry small, usually globose, often immersed in 
the succulent rhachis, more rarely stalked. Seed similar in shape 
to the berry ; testa thin ; endosperm usually hard. 
Erect or scandent shrubs; branches jointed at the nodes ; leaves alternate, 
entire, equal or unequal at the base, penninerved ; stipules adnate to the petiole 
or connate into a leaf-opposed sheath ; flowers usually sessile; spikes terminal 
or leaf-opposed. 
Distris. Species about 600, spread through the warmer regions of both 
hemispheres, 
Leaves 5-7-nerved from the base ; berry sessile ; 
stigmas 2 bee bo age F anOl al ota ON a Gl) Saee 
Leaves penninerved ; berry stalked ; stigmas 8 ... ... (3) borbonense. 
1. P. capense (Linn. f. Suppl. 90) ; a shrub, erect or more or less 
climbing ; branches terete, swollen at the nodes, glabrous ; leaves 
ovate or more rarely elliptic, equilateral or nearly 80, shortly 
acuminate, rounded or shortly cordate at the base, 5—7-nerved from 
the base, membranous, pellucid-dotted, about 4 in. long, 25-3 in. 
wide, glabrous above, usually villous on the under-surface of the 
nerves especially towards their base; petiole channelled above, 
about 1 in. long, glabrous; stipules lanceolate, membranous, 
deciduous ; catkins terminating short lateral branches which 
appear to spring from the middle of the petiole, 14-2 in. long in 
flower, cylindrical ; peduncles about 9 lin. long; bracts peltate, 
glabrous except at the base of the very short stalk ; stamens 3-2 ; 
anther -cells separated by a wide connective; ovary ovoid ; 
stigmas 2, recurved ; fruit obtuse, compressed, sessile. Thunb. Fl. 
Cap. ed. Schultes, 443 ; Drége, Zwei Pfl. Documente, 124, 125, and 
in Linnea, xx, 215; C. DO. in DC, Prodr. xvi, i, 339, and in Engl. 
