Piper. DIANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 155 



learn, that this plant is cultivated for its pepper. When the 

 pepper (anient) is full grown, it is gathered and daily expos- 

 ed to the sun, till perfectly dry ; after which it is packed up 

 in bags for sale. 



The roots, and thickest parts of the creeping stems, when 

 cut into small pieces and dried, form a considerable article of 

 commerce all over India, under the name of Pippula moola; 

 for which purpose it is particularly cultivated in many of the 

 vallies amongst the Circar mountains. This sort is more 

 esteemed, and bears a higher price than that of Bengal ; 

 where by far the largest proportion is cultivated. It is, as 

 well as the pepper, chiefly employed medicinally, and the 

 consumption of both these drugs is very great. 



Cultivation in Bengal. The long pepper is not pro- 

 pagated by seed, but by suckers, and requires to be cultivat- 

 ed upon a rich, high, and dry soil. The suckers are trans- 

 planted soon after the setting in of the periodical rains, and 

 the pepper (which is preserved merely by drying it in the 

 sun), is gathered in the month of January, after which the 

 stalk, and branches of the plant wither, and the roots only re- 

 main alive. A b/gha of land (the third of an English acre) 

 will yield in the first year about a maund (eighty-four 

 pounds) of the pepper, in the second year four maunds ; and 

 in the third, six ; after which, as the plant becomes annually 

 less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and 

 sold ; and fresh roots, or young 1 shoots are set in their stead, 

 the earth requiring merely a slight covering of manure. The 

 plants are never to be watered, and at the commencement of 

 the hot season the roots are to be carefully covered with 

 straw to preserve them against the heat of the sun. The 

 plants should be set about five feet asunder. Large quanti- 

 ties of this pepper and also of the roots are exported to Bom- 

 bay, and Surat ; where both are in great demand, the first for 

 culinary, the latter for medicinal purposes. The ryots in 

 this part of the country, usually sow radishes, or barley, or 



