PIPERACE^. 343 



and having the embryo, in the embryo sac, at the upper 

 end with its radicle pointing upwards. 



The genus is supposed to consist of 400 or 500 species but 

 there has been much confusion in the identification of many of 

 them, for the only certain character, the shape of the bract, is 

 always difficult, and, often in dried specimens impossible, to 

 determine. The leaves vary considerably in shape and hairiness, 

 according to the position on the plant itself and the amount 

 of sunlight they are exposed to. Small and constant variations 

 are also to be found, Dr. C. A. Barber informs me, between the 

 plants of a species in one shola and those of the same species 

 in another : but all of a species in the same shola are usually 

 alike. 



Those which may be found at these levels appear to 

 be as follows : — 



(i) Bracts, rounded free of the spike along their upper 

 edges only and attached to it at the base and sides by decurrent 

 margins. Spikes long and slender — the cultivated ' Pepper ' — 

 usually below 5,500 fest P. nigrum. 



(ii) Bracts circular, attached by the middle, with their 

 margins free all round. Female spikes % inch long only : male 

 spikes I inch erect. (Common Pepper of Longwood shola, 

 Kotagiri) P. brachystachyum. 



(iii) Bracts oblong or angular, fitting close between the 

 berries, with margin free all round. (Common Pepper of 



Ootacamund and Kodaikanal) P. schmidtii. 



(including P. wighdi of F.B.I.) 



Piper brachystachyum Wall., Cat. 6656 J.D.H. ms. ! ; 

 F.B.I. V 87, II 24. Peculiar in its very short nearly 

 globular female spikes. 



Leaves on the climbing stem broadly ovate, cordate, 

 cuspidate, about lH inches wide, and as long or slightly 

 longer: stalks as long. Leaves of the free branches 

 narrower than long, elliptic, with acute base and bluntly 

 acuminate or cuspidate apex ; nerves four, a pair of 

 opposite ones leaving the midrib near the base, two others 

 not opposite each other leaving it below the middle. 

 Bracts circular, attached by the centre with margin free 

 all round. Male spikes I to 2 inches, slender erect very 



