HERBA MATICO. 5S9 



frequently mistaken by Europeans for cubebs. The tree which affonh 

 them is unknown to modern botanists; Meissner refers it doubtfully to 

 the genus Tetranthera} 



Ashantee Pepper, African Cubebs, or West African 



Black Pepper. 



This spice is the fruit of P/^>6r Clusii Cas. DC. {Cuheha Clusii Miq.), 

 a species of wide distribution in tropical Africa, most abundantly 

 occurring in the country of the Niamniam, about 4'' to 5° N. lat., and 

 28' to 29° E. long. Its splendid red fruit bunches are spoken of with 

 admiration by Schweinfurth/^ who states that Piper Ch^nii is one of the 

 characteristic and most conspicuous plants of those regions. The dried 

 fruit is a round beriy having a general resemblance to common cubobs 

 but somewhat smaller, less rugose, attenuated into a slender pedicel once 

 or twice as long as the berry and usually curved. The berrir^^ are 

 crowded around a common stalk or rachis ; they are of an ashy grey 

 tint, and have a hot taste and the odour of pepper. According to fSten- 

 house, they contain piperin and not cubebin.^ 



The fruit of Pii)er Clusii was known as early as 1304 to the 



merchants of Rouen and Dieppe, who imported it from the Gram Coast, 



now Liberia/ under the name of pepper. The Portuguese likewise 



exported it from Benin as for back as 1485, as Fimicnta de rr 'o, i.e. 



tailed r>ep}m\ and attempted in vain to sell it in Flanders. Uusius 

 ^^^.- -Ai /^. ' T 1 ^ • c L\'„ .7,,.,^ ^f vvln^i hfi has left a 



receiv 



collected in large quantities, provided it should prove a good subst.tuu) 



for pepper. 



HERBA MATICO 



Ma tico. 



Botanical Origin— Pi^^er angustifol 



•iiK crrnwino- in the moisc wooub ui ^..>...", - . > 

 "an.! V^lal, also cultivated iu some -al.... 



somewhat stoute. onn ! P'-^'Brima,, 



A slightly different, 



7 to 8 inches long (\....^. .^ ^ , 



provinces of Bahia, Minas Geraes and Ceara, 



northern parts of South America. 



'Be Candolle, Prod. xv. sect. i. 190; , 'fji^rt 



ilanbury in Pharm. Jouni. iii. (18(52) 205, ^'^i'l'-, • ^ oo „ \U (1605). 



with figure ; also ^aV«ce /Ver., 247. .. , »t;m X"V;^' ^iv. (l^^i^) 1^8- ,. 



* Im Ilerzen Afrkas, i. (1874) :>o7 ; "• . A; f !!sk of it was otfcrcd for sale m 



Barros 



2^9. ^^'^ It'^Cvhrh. '' 11 Feb. IbuS. 



Ji^/iarm.^owr^. xiv. (1855)363. 9 f^v in Bcntley and Trimen's 



Margry, Les navigations fran^aises el hi ^ b* . ,0 ngT:), 



18G7, 26. 



Mi<L 



