34^ PiPERACE^. 



erect interrupted spikes of 2 to 5 inches in length. Male 

 flower larger than female. Fruiting sepals erect, closely 

 appressed to the small three-gonous nut. 



A weed of cultivation, native of the north temperate 

 regions. Pulneys : at Kodaikanal. Fyson 279. 



PIPERACE^. 



Herbs or shrubs, sometimes climbing, with entire, 

 often gland-dotted leaves and catkin-like spikes of 

 minute, often unisexual, flowers which have each a 

 bract but no petals or sepals, two to six stamens, and 

 an ovary of one cell. Ovules one or more, erect, almost 

 peculiar in having the micropyle at the opposite end to 

 the point of attachment, and in the seed being filled 

 mostly with the original tissue of the ovule iperisperm), 

 the embryo sac (with its enclosed endosperm remaining 

 small. 



Genera 8, species (?) 1,000, chiefly in America. 



PIPER. F.B.I. 124 II. 



Pepper, etc. 

 Thin-stemmed plants climbing up trees to which they 

 attach themselves by roots. Leaves alternate, stalked : 

 those of the climbing stem often of a different size 

 and shape from those of the spreading branches (as 

 happens with many other root-climbers, e.g., the Ivy) : 

 nodes usually much swollen. Spikes (or catkins) one 

 to three inches long, opposite the leaves : mostly unisexual 

 and in the wild species dioecious. Bract 1/30 to 1/20 

 inch across. Stamens two or three, ovary with three 

 small stigmas but no style, and one erect ovule, attached 

 to the base with its micropyle pointing upwards. 

 Fruit a berry with one seed filled mostly with perisperm 



