280 Miscellaneous, 



de leur ailes forme une sorte de pouche pres du carpe " (should be 

 elbow). " C'est ce qui avait fait nommer par lUiger Saccopteryx, celui 

 de ces genres qui comprend les Taphiens." 



J. E. Gray. 



ON THE OFFICINAL SPECIES OF PEPPER. By M. MlQUEL. 



Miquel, like Jussieu, De Candolle and Endlicher, places the Pipe- 

 racecB among the Dicotyledons, as the embryo in germination exhi- 

 bits two regular seed-lobes, which are uncommonly small, and so 

 difficult to discover while the embryo in the ripe seed is enclosed in 

 the permanent embryo sac, half sunk in the apex of the albumen, 

 that very recently this was regarded as the only cotyledon. 



The Piperacecp. belong to the imperfect Dicotyledons, and stand 

 best among Endlicher's lulijlores., somewhere near the Betulacece, and 

 in the vicinity of the Urticacece, with which indeed Jussieu united 

 them. The family is evidently quite tropical, the species being 

 dispersed universally over the torrid zone of the earth ; the indivi- 

 duals are most abundant in the hot parts of America, and propor- 

 tionally rare in tropical Africa. The American are almost ail gene- 

 rically, or, with the exception of one truly cosmopolitan species, at 

 least specifically diiFerent from those of the Old World. 



Miquel divides the PiperacecB into two tribes, the first of which, 

 PiperomiecBi comprehends the herbaceous with axillary catkins, an- 

 drogynous flowers and anthers one-celled in dehiscence. They are, 

 with very few exceptions, American, and none are employed offi- 

 cinally. 



The second tribe, Piperem, contains the shrubby and arborescent 

 species. Their catkins are situated opposite the leaves; flowers 

 mostly dioecious, the female exhibiting several distinct stigmas, the 

 males with two-celled anthers. To the first division, characterized 

 by permanent stipulae and numerous sessile catkins, belongthe genus 

 Pothomorphe, Miq., of which many species, especially Pothomorphe 

 umbellata, Miq., have pungent aromatic roots, which, under the name 

 of Caapeba, are used in Brazil as stomachics and sudorifics. 



The root of Macropiper methysticum, Miq., possesses similar qua- 

 lities. It is used in the South Sea islands in the preparation of an 

 intoxicating drink (highly pernicious in its effects), called Awa or 

 Kawa, and has lately been made use of in medicine in England 

 under the name of Radix Awcb. 



Of the true Piperece, which are separated from the preceding 

 division by deciduous stipulae and solitary catkins, two genera in 

 this first volume are to be noticed here : — Chavica^ Miq. and Cu- 

 beba, Miq. 



I. Genus Chavica^ Miq. — Flowers dioecious. Bracts of the male 

 like those of the female catkins, shortly stalked, almost four-angled, 

 shield-shaped. ^ Stamens % with two-celled anthers. ? Style 

 very short or wanting. In the latter case the 3-6 thick stigmas are 

 immediately sessile on the ovate ovarium. The berries unite with 

 the permanent bracteae and the thickened axis of the catkins into a 

 fleshy fusiform fruit. Seeds longish or almost lenticular, with scaly. 



