1 
154 DIANDRIA TRIGYNIA. Piper. 
nerved, (generally five,) above, smooth and glossy, below, lighter 
coloured, often somewhat bubbled, from four to six inches long, and 
from tw» to four broad.— Pefioles channelled, smooth, an inch or — — 
an mch and half long.— S?ipules solitary, spathiform falling off when 
the leaf begins to be unfolded. 
MALE PLANT. Calyxan ament,leaf-opposed, peduncled, filiform, 
pendulous, closely imbricated with five spiral rows, of fleshy, oval, — 
oue-ilowered scales.—Scales oblong, peltate, sessile, one-flowered. 
— Corel none.— Filaments three, very thick, and very short, scarcely _ 
elevating the anthers above the margins of the scales of the ament, - 
Aathers four-lobed.— Pistil, in some, a minute cylindric gland in the : : : 
cenire, in others, not the smallest rudiment of one. 
FEMALE PrawT. Calyx an ament, leaf-opposed, shorter, thicker, : 
and more rigid than in the male, imbricated with three spiral rows of A 
scales.— Scales as in the male.—Corol none.—Stamens none.— | 
Germ sessile, globose, immersed in the substance of the ament. ; 
Style uone. Stigma three-lobed, white, glandular.—Pericarp, a 
small, round, red, somewhat fleshy berry.— Seed one, globose. 
Uús. When I described the three vines included in this one species, 
I had not seen Piper nigrum, and took it for granted that this was it; 
but as soon as I had an opportunity of seeing that famous plant, Í 
was immediately convinced that they were distinct species. In frioi- — 
cum, the leaves have a‘ glaucous appearance, which readily distin- — 
guishes it from P. nigrum, which has shining dark green leaves. — 
This vine I bave found wild amongst the chain of mountains directly : 
north from Coringa, in the Raja-mundri Circar. It delights ina moist, id 
rich soil, well shaded with trees ; to them it adheres most firmly, by a 
means of the roots which issue from the joints. Flowering time, in 
their wild state, during the latter part of the wet season, Septem- dd 
ber and October. The pepper ripens in March, With me, ina — 
cultivated state, they flower almost all the year round, but chiefly - 
during the forementioned petiod. 
l have not met with any author, or any sort of information, that y 
could lead me to think black pepper was the produce of a dioecous - 
