312 Dr. Francis HamiLzTon’s Commentary, óc. 
Molago, previously given to the native Piper nigrum. Capo, the 
specific name, would seem to imply that it came originally from 
Africa, the natives of which, and not an Indian tribe, as Com- 
meline asserts, are known in Malabar by the name Capo or 
Capro, derived from the Cafree, or rather Kaffur of the Arabs, 
who settled very early in Malabar, and who, having early much 
communication with Zanguebar and Mosambique, probably 
brought the Capsicum from thence, as those from Guinea took 
it to America. I must however confess, that the authority of 
Rumphius, always of the greatest weight, is here against me. 
We learn indeed from Mr. Maxwell, that this plant (Cayenne 
pepper) grows spontaneously in Congo ( Edin. Phil. Journ. n. xi. 
67.) ; but this, so far as I have seen, is not the case in either the 
East or West Indies. 
The Capo Molago by Plakenet was called Solanum mordens 
fructu oblongo pendulo minore ( Alm. 353.), and was quoted by the 
younger Burman for the Capsicum annuum (Fl. Ind. 51.) ; but, if 
this be the Capsicum siliquis longis propendentibus of Tournefort, 
the Capo Molago is a different variety, being the C. minus flavum 
of Rumphius, and having shorter and blunter berries. It is not 
quoted by Willdenow, unless, being included in the Capsicum - 
indicum of Rumphius, it belongs to the C. frutescens: but the 
C. indicum of Rumphius includes three varieties, two of them 
more different from this than tlie C. annuum is. 
The Capo Molago is not quoted in the Encyclopédie; but it 
probably is the Capsicum luteum of that work (v. 327.), called by 
the French Piment de Mozambique, from whence I suppose it 
came. 
XIII. The 
