o 



Piper. DIANDRTA TKIGYNIA. 153 



female flower, just before it is ready to burst and thrusting 

 therein a branch of ihe male spadix. 1 have therefore the 

 ufmost reason to conclude the pepper vine will be much more 

 productive, if the above-mentioned circumstance be attend- 

 ed to, by the cultivators. I think, if the Malays in Sumatra 

 hi (I known it, the accurate Mr. 3Iarsden would not have ne- 

 glected mentioning - so material a circumstance, when describ- 

 ing this plant, and the method of cultivating it there. 



Soon after the above description was made, I found a 

 third vine bearing aments with hermaphrodite flowers; or 

 hermaphrodite nxidj'emale flowers mixed on the same aments. 

 At the same time I found that the pepper of the female vine 

 did not ripen properly, but dropped while green, and imma- 

 ture from the plant, and that when dried it had not so much 

 pungency as common pepper, whereas the pepper of this 

 third sort ripens perfectly, when dry is exceedingly pun- 

 gent ;and has been, by pepper merchants ;it Madras, reckon- 

 ed equal, if not superior to the best pepper of the Malabar 

 const, or Ceylon; consequently this must be the sort that is 

 found cultivated ; the other two being, I conjecture, entirely 

 neglected. 



This hermaphrodite plant grows wild, with the male and 

 female, in the moist, uncultivated, over-rim shady vallies, up 

 amongst the mountains; and also upon the mountains, where 

 springs keep them moist. Such places are common in the 

 cliffs of the rocks, nnd there the vines thrive with the sreatest 

 luxuriance. In its stem, brandies, leaves, and stipules, it 

 agrees perfectly with the other two. The aments are also 

 the same in every respect, except that here are four spiral 

 rows of flowers ; the scales of the anient are as in the other 

 two, viz. the male and female plants. Stamens, generally 

 two, fleshy, clubbed fllaments, shorter than the germ, and 

 placed laterally, so as to press upon it. It frequently hap- 

 pens that they are entirely wanting, or only one is present. 

 Anthers two oval pits in the apex of each filament. Germ 

 globular, immersed in the substance of the ament. Style 



