38 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
in five parcels, appearing at different times, two or three together, with double anthers. 
large, roundish, drooping, pedicelled germ, crowned with six revolute stigmas. 
The plant under consideration is found in the middle and southern section 
skirting the sea coast. It blooms from May to August. 
The root is the officinal portion ; it is active at all seasons. When dried, it is li 
externally, white internally. It has little odour, and an acrid bitter taste. In the recent state it is more active than 
when dried, and by keeping, loses its activity. It contains resin, starch, gum, caoutchouc, and a volatile principle. 
In its effects it is emetic, in large doses acrid and irritating, with the production of prostration. It was mentioned 
by Dr. B. S. Barton, in his collections, and more thoroughly brought before the medical public by Drs. W. P. C. Bar. 
ton and Bigelow. 
Pirate LXXXII.—Represents two forms of the plant, and the flowers and fruit. 
The fertile flowers have a 
Capsule three-celled, three-seeded. 
s of the United States, in sandy soil, 
ght, brittle, grayish, or dirty-yellow 
PIPERACEA. 
KUNTH. 
THE PEPPER TRIBE. 
Essent1at Cuar.—Flomers naked, hermaphrodite, with a bract on the outside. Stamens definite, or indefinite, 
arranged on one side, or all round the ovary ; to which they adhere more or less. Anthers one or two-celled, with or 
without a fleshy connective. Pollen smooth. Ovary superior, simple, one-celled, containing a single erect ovule. 
Stigma sessile, simple, rather oblique. Fruit superior, somewhat fleshy, indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded. Seed 
erect, with the embryo lying in a fleshy sac, placed at that end of the seed which is opposite the hylum, on the outside 
of the albumen. Shrubs or herbaceous plants. Leaves opposite, verticillate, or alternate, in consequence of the abor- 
tion of one pair of the leaves, without stipules. Flowers usually sessile, sometimes pedicellate, in spikes which are 
either terminal or axillary, or opposite the leaves. (Lindley. ) 
The peppers are inhabitants of the tropical portions of the earth, and are numerous. Those employed for medi- 
cinal purposes are endowed with pungent stimulating properties due to the presence of a volatile oil, in one or twoa 
peculiar principle (piperin) has been found, and in another a more volatile solid, cubebin. It is probable that similar 
principles exist in others. 
PIPER NIGRUM. 
LINNAUS. 
BLACK PEPPER. 
Sex. Syst.—Diandria, Trigynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—Spadiz covered with flowers on all sides. Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely dicecious, each euppore® 
by a scale. Stamina two or more. Ovarium with one, solitary, erect ovule. Stigma punctiform, obtuse oF 65 
Berry one-seeded. Embryo dicotyledonous, inverted. (Blume. Pereira.) 3 ting st 
Spectr. Cuar.—Stem trailing or climbing, shru bby, flexuose, and dichotomously branched, jointed, swel a 
the joints, and often throwing out radicles there which adhere to bodies like the roots of ivy, or become roots striking 
into the ground. Leaves from four to six inches long, alternate, distichous, broadly ovate, acuminated, of a full green 
and glossy colour, paler beneath, five to seven nerved, the nerves connected by lesser transverse ones OF veins, 
prominent beneath. Petioles rounded, from half an inch to nearly an inch long. Spikes opposite the leaves, chiefly 
near the upper ends of the branches, stalked, from three to six inches long, slender, drooping, apparently som? pes 
others female, while sometimes the flowers are furnished with both valet and pistil. Stamens three. Frut ag 10s : 
