312 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary, ^c. 



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 Plukenet was called Solanum mordens 

 fructu ohlongo pendulo minore {Aim. 353.), and was quoted by the 

 younger Burman for the Capsicum annuum {Fl. Ind. 57.) ; but, if 

 this be the Capsicum siliquis longis propendentibus of Tournefort, 

 the Capo Molago is a different variety, being the C. minus jiavum 

 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 the C. annuum is. 



The Capo Molago is not quoted in the EncyclopSdie ; but it 

 probably is the Capsicum luteum of that work (v. 32?.), called by 

 the French Piment de Mozambique, from whence I suppose it 

 came. 



XIII. The 



