Piper. DIANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 153 
female flower, just before it is ready to burst and thrusting 
therein a branch of the male spadix. 1 have therefore the 
utmost reason to conclude the pepper vine will be much more 
productive, if the above-mentioned circumstance be attend- 
ed to, by the cultivators, I think, if the Malays in Sumatra 
bad known it, the accurate Mr, Marsden would not have ne- 
glected mentioning so material a circumstance, when describ- 
ing this plant, and the method of cultivating it there. 
Soon after the above description was made, I found a 
third vine bearing aments with hermaphrodite flowers; or 
hermaphrodiie and female flowers mixed on the same aments, 
At the same time I found that the pepper of the female vine 
did not ripen properly, but dropped while green, and imma- 
ture from the plant, and that when dried it, had not so much 
pungency as common pepper, whereas the pepper of this 
third sort ripens perfectly, when dry is exceedingly pun- 
* gent; and has been, by pepper merchants at Madras, reckon- 
ed equal, if not superior to the best pepper of the Malabar 
coast, or Ceylon; consequently this must be the sort that is — 
found cultivated ; the whey two bana k conjectare, — 
_ neglected, 
This hermaphrodite lone grows wild, with the male and 
female, in the moist, uncultivated, over-run shady vallies, ap 
amongst the mountains ; and also upon the mountains, where © 
springs keep them moist. Such places are common in the — 
cliffs of the rocks, and there the vines thrive with the greatest — 
luxuriance. In its stem, branches, leaves, and stipules, it- 
agrees perfectly with the other two. The aments are also 
the same in every respect, except that here are four spiral 
rows ‘of flowers ; the scales of the ament are as in the other 
two, viz, the oak and female — nase ‘ ms 
Unibet oils the Spex of cath bei Ceri? 
i globular, immersed in the substance of the ament. Style 
