PIPEBACEJS. 175 



Adulteration. — As pepper is always sold whole in India, it is 

 seldom adulterated. We have occasionally met with an admix- 

 ture of the berries of Emhelia Ribcs, and the fruit of Mirahilis 

 Jalap a j[s stated to be sometimes mixed with it. 



The abortive berries of P. troicium^ Roxh.^ now considered 



to be the wild form of P. nigrmn^ are known in Western India 

 as Pokali-miri^ and the plant as Kokervel in Marathi and Murial- 

 tiga in Telugu. Garcia d' Orta notices the drug under the 

 name of Canarese pepper, and observes that it never finds its 

 way to Portugal, but is valued as a medicine by the natii^es to 

 purge the brain of phlegm, to relieve toothache, and as a remedy 

 for cholera. 



This plant was first described by Roxburgh, who found it 

 growing wild in the hills north of Samulcotta. 



It was growing plentifully about every valley among the 

 hills, delighting in a moist rich soil^ and well shaded by trees? 

 the flowers appearing in September and October^ and the 

 berries ripening in March. Roxburgh commenced a large 

 plantation, and in 1789 it contained about 40,000 or 50,000 

 pepper- vines, occupying about 50 acres of land. The produce 

 was great, about 1,000 vines yielding from 500 to 1,000 lbs. of 

 berries. He discovered that the pepper of the female vines did 

 not ripen properly, but dropped while green, and that when 

 dried it had not the pungency of the common pepper ; whereas 

 the pepper of those plants which had the hermaphrodite and 

 female flowers mixed on the same ament was exceedingly pun- 

 gent, and was reckoned by the merchants equal to the best 

 .Malabar pepper. 



Pliny (12,14) mentions abortive pepper seeds known by the 

 name of ^* Bregma,'* a word which in the Indian language sig- 

 nifies ^^dead. '' He remarks that it is the 

 of pepper. 



Lendi-pipali. Globidar catkins of a species of pepper 

 occasionally found in the Bombay market, said to come from 

 Singapore. They are of the size of the pellets of sheep's dung, 

 hence the name Lendi-pipall. The taste is very hot and acrid. 



most pung 



