III.] PIPER AC E^. 293 



leaves. Flowers in dense spikes or racemes. Perianth o. 

 Ovary one-celled, one-ovuled. 



Type— The Betle {Chavica Beth). 



A smooth, woody, climbing or creeping, jointed plant 

 giving off numerous adventitious roots, with alternate, 

 cordate, seven- or nine-nerved leaves, and leaf-opposed, 

 drooping catkins of minute, dioecious flowers. 



Observe the flowers, borne in the axils of minute, peltate, 

 shortly-pedicelled bracts : the minute embryo and double 

 albumen. 



•Fig. 182. Portion of spike and detached hermaphrodite flower of Pepper [Piper). 



The Peppers are almost wholly a tropical Family, 

 abounding in the hottest regions of South America, India, 

 and the Indian islands. They generally agree in habit 

 with our Type, though some of them are low, prostrate 

 herbs. 



Many species are aromatic, or pungent and biting. The 

 Type-species is universally cultivated in India as a masti- 

 catory, being chewed with lime and the nut of the Areca 

 Palm. The root of Piper methysticum is similarly employed 

 in the Pacific islands under the name of Kava. 



Black pepper is the unripe, dried berries of P. nigruvi ; 

 white pepper tlie same berries allowed to ripen, with the 



