Piper, DIANDRIA TRIGYNIA, | 155 
learn, that this plant is cultivated for its pepper. When the 
pepper (ament) is full grown, it is gathered and daily expos- 
ed to the sun, till perfectly dry; after which it is packed up 
in bags for sale. . 
The roots, and thickest parts of the creeping stems, when 
cut into small pieces and dried, forma considerable article of 
commerce all over India, under the name of Pippula moola ; 
for which purpose it is particularly cultivated in many of the 
vallies amongst the Circar mountains. This sort is more 
esteemed, and bears a higher price than that of Bengal; 
’ where by far the largest proportion is cultivated. — It is, as 
well as the pepper, chiefly employed medicinally, and the 
consumption of both these drugs is very great. 
~ . CurtivaTion 1n Bencat., The long pepper is not pro- 
ry 
pagated by seed, but by suckers, and requires to be cultivat- 
ed upon a rich, high, and dry soil. The suckers are trans- 
planted soon after the setting in of the periodical rains, and 
the pepper (which is preserved merely by drying it in the 
sun), is gathered in the month of January, after which the. 
stalk, and branches of the plant wither, and the roots only re- 
-main alive. A bigha of land (the third of an English acre) 
will yield in the first year about a maund (eighty-four 
pounds) of the pepper, in the second year four maunds ; and 
in the third, six ; after which, as the plant becomes annually 
less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and 
sold ; and fresh roots, or young shoots are set in their stead, 
the entth requiring merely a slight covering of manure. The 
plants. are never to be watered, and at the commencement of 
the hot season the roots are to be carefully covered. with 
_ Straw to preserve them against the heat of the sun. a : 
plants should be set about five feet asunder. Large quanti 
tiee.of this, pepper. and-aleo ofthe soute ane 9% aa rt _* 
