202 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
The hot taste seems to be due to a peculiar acrid fluid called capsicine, 
which is so pungent that half a grain of it, volatilized in a large room, 
causes all who respire the contained air to cough and sneeze. Chili 
vinegar is prepared by simply placing a handful of pods in a pint of 
good vinegar, aad allowing the mixture to stand for two or three weeks. 
It has been observed that generous culture increases the size of the 
fruit, but impairs its pyngency and acridity. Pepper-pot, or man dram, 
is an appetizing preparation of the West Indies, in which capsicum is 
one of the chief ingredients. 
Japan or Chinese pepper consists of the fruit of Xanthoxylon piperitum, 
(Xanthorylacec,) which has an aromatic, pungent, peppery taste. 
New Holland pepper is the fruit of Tasmania aromatica, (Magnoliacew,) 
a native of Van Dieman’s Land, where it forms a dwarf spreading tree. 
The fruit is black, very like true pepper, possessing a great degree of 
Similar aromatic pungency, and is used as a substitute for that condi- 
ment. 
Long pepper and Betel pepper are furnished by Chavica Roxburghit and 
C. betel, (Piperacee,) respectively. They are strictly tropical plants. 
Long pepper is furnished by thé immature spikes of flewers which are 
gathered and dried in the sun. In chemical composition and qualities 
it resembles ordinary black pepper, and contains piperine. The leaf of 
the betel pepper is used for chewing with the betel-nut, Areca catechu. 
Capers.—Capparis spinosa (Capparidacee) is a creeping plant, a native 
of the south of Europe. The fower-buds, and in some parts of Italy 
the unripe fruit, are pickled in vinegar,and form what is known as 
capers. An African species, C. Sodada, furnishes berries with a pepper- 
like, pungent taste, and when dried are used as food. The flower-buds 
of Zygophyllum fabago, (Zygophyllacee,) a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, are used instead of capers, or substituted for that condiment. 
Z. coccineum has aromatic seeds, which are used by the natives in place 
of pepper. These and several other species are possessed of vermifuge 
properties. The leaves of Z. simplex are used for diseases of the eye. 
eat smell of this plant is so detestable that no animal will eat the 
oliage. 
Coriander seed—The fruit of Coriandrum sativum (Umbellifere) is 
commercially, but erroneousiy, known as coriander seeds. The plant 
is a low-growing annual, native of the south of Europe. It is of the 
easiest culture; the seeds sown in spring produce plants which ripen 
their fruit in the fall; a sandy soil is preferable. They are aromatic 
and carminative, and are used for flavoring curries and tor other culinary 
purposes; also by distillers, druggists, and confectioners. 
Caraway seeds are the fruits of Carum carui, (Umbellifere,) a small 
biennial plant, cultivated for its fruit in various parts of Iurope, chiefly 
in Germany and Britain. The seed is sown as soon as it ripens, in the 
latter part of summer, and when the plants are sufficiently advanced 
they are thinned so as to allow one to each square toot of surface. The 
fruit ripens during the following summer. The seeds are used for 
flavoring purposes in cookery and confectionery, being highly aromatie. 
Ginger.—This well-known spice is furnished by the rhizomes of Zingi- 
ber officinale, (Zingiberacee,) a plant much cultivated both in the Hast 
and West Indies, as well as in South America, Africa, and China. The 
rhizome, or woody root-stock, which forms the ginger, is dug up when 
of sufficient size, cleaned, scraped, and dried, and in this state is called 
uncoated ginger; but when the outer skin is not removed from the rvot- 
Stocks it is called coated, and presents a-dirty-brown appearance. Inde- 
pendent of this difference in color, which is in the mode of preparation, 
