PIPER A OEM, 171 



6 



about 5,000 candies are produced annually. It is a Government 

 monopoly. {Dniry, ) 



Description. — The immature fruity known as Black 



Pepper, is globular, about ^ of an incb in diameter, muck 

 wrinkled, and of a brown-black colour ; on one side are tbe 

 remains of tke peduncle, and on tbe other of the style and 

 stigmas. The pericarp is closely adherent to the seed. The 

 latter consists of a thin reddish^brown testa and a copious 

 albumen, the exterior portion of which is horny and the 

 interior farinaceous. The embryo is undeveloped. The mature 

 seed, known as White Pepper, is less acnd than Black, as the 

 pericarp has been removed ; it is also rather smaller and of a 

 grey colour, striated from base to apex by about a dozen light 

 stripes. 



The transverse section of a grain of black pepper exhibits a 

 soft, yellowish epidermis covering the outer pericarp. This is 

 formed of a closely-packed yellow layer of large, mostly radially 

 arranged, thick-walled cells, each containing in its small cavity 

 a mass of dark-brown resin. The middle layer of the pericarp 

 consists of softj tangentially-extended parcnchyme, containing 

 an abundance of extremely small starch granules and drops of oil. 

 The shrinking of this loose middle layer is the chief cause of 

 the deep wrinkles on the surface of the berry. The next inner 

 layer of the pericarp exhibits towards its circumference, 

 tangentially-arranged soft parenchyme, the cells of which 

 possess either spiral striation or spiral fibres, but towards the 

 interior, loose parenehyme free from starch and containing very 

 large oil cells. 



The testa is formed in the first place of a row of small yellow 

 thick -walled cells. Next to them follows the true testa, as 

 a dense, dark-brown layer of lignified cells, the individual out- 

 lines of which are undistinguishable. 



The albumen of the seed consists of angular, radially arran<>- 

 ed, large-celled parenehyme. Most of its cells are colourless 

 and loaded with starch ; others contain a soft, yellow, amorphous 

 mass. If thin slices are kept under glycerine for some time, 



