CAPSICUM 



Chillies 



THE CAPER 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 133. 

 Caper. 



Oils. 



Medicine. 



Food. 



Timber. 



D.E.P., v 

 ii., 134-40. 

 Red 

 Pepper. 



History. 



Columbus. 



Cardamom 

 confused with 

 Capsicum. 



CAPPARIS SPINOSA, Linn. ; Fl Br. Ind., i., 173 ; Cooke, 

 Fl. Pres. Bomb., i., 44 ; Pharmacog. Ind., i., 135 ; CAPPARIDEJE. The 

 Edible Caper of Europe and the kabarra, kaur, kiari, etc., of India. 



A small prostrate shrub found on hilly and rocky ground in Upper India. 

 It is distributed to Afghanistan, West Asia, Europe, N. Africa, Australia and 

 the Sandwich Islands. There are a considerable number of species of Cninmrin, 

 no less than 30 being mentioned in the Flora of British India, but only two or 

 three besides c. spinosa are of any great importance. These are c. aphyiia, 

 Roth., the karel, nepti, etc. a dense much-branched shrub found abundantly 

 in the drier parts of the Panjab, Gujarat, Rajputana, Deccan and S. Karnatak, 

 and c. horritin, Linn., /., the ardanda, Icarvila, etc., found in the Gangetic 

 valley, etc., as far north as Saharaiipur, in the Western Peninsula, also in Chitta- 

 gong, Pegu and Ceylon. It is also distributed to Java and the Philippines. 

 Besides these c. grandis, the pachunda, guli, etc., is found in the Deccan, 

 Karnatak and Ceylon. 



Several species are known to yield OILS. c. grnnelis affords an oil used 

 in medicine and for burning, while C. *pinomi yields a volatile oil which has 

 the properties of garlic oil (Pharmacog. Ind. , I.e.). The caper is mentioned by Greek 

 and Latin writers, and through them doubtless the MEDICINAL properties of 

 the root were made known to the Arabs. It was very generally employed in 

 affections of the liver and spleen, and also in amenorrhoea. In India all parts 

 of the plant are regarded as stimulating and astringent, when externally appliod. 

 The young flower-buds and fruits of '. aphyiia, as also of *'. *i*io*. are eaten 

 in India. The former species is the more important ; the buds are pickled and 

 the fruits eaten both when green and when fully ripe. ('. *innosa is met with in 

 the Panjab, but it has never assumed the position of importance assigned to it 

 in Europe, where the pickled buds form the " Capers " of commerce. Gerarde 

 (1596) and Miller (1748) mention that the caper had been successfully grown 

 in England in the open air, but it is usually regarded as requiring protection 

 in winter. The WOOD of C. apjiytia is employed in India for making combs, 

 small beams and rafters, for the knees of boats, etc., and is valuable because 

 of its not being attacked by white ants. [Cf. Taleef Shereef (Playfair, transl.), 

 1833, 120.] 



CAPSICUM, Liim.; FL Br. Ind., iv., 238; Steph. and Church., 

 Med. Bot., 1834, i., pi. 44 ; Bentley and Trimen, Med. PL, t. 189 ; Duthie 

 and Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, iii., 36-7, pi. 72, 74 ; Sturtevant, Hist. 

 Gard. Veg., inAmer. Nat., 1890, xxiv., 151-7 ; Irish, Rev. Genus Capsicum, 

 in Missouri Bot. Gard., 1898, ix., 53-110, tt. 8-28 ; SOLANACEJE. The 

 Guinea Pepper, Red Pepper, Pod Pepper, Chilli, Cayenne, Tabasco, etc. 



History. There would seem to be little doubt that the entire series of plants 

 constituting the genus Cnimtfiiut are natives of tropical America. Peter Martyr 

 was perhaps the first person who described this kind of pepper. In an epistle dated 



1493 (the year following the discovery of the West Indies), he says that Columbus 

 had brought to Spain " pepper more pungent than that from the Caucasus." In 



1494 Chanca, the physician who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, 

 addressed a letter to the Chapter of Seville on the same subject. In that he 

 calls this pepper by its West Indian name, axi a word that has since been 

 rendered as achi or agi, and has survived in Spanish to this day. Although 

 some of the 16th century authors maintain that the siliquastrum of Pliny is the 

 Pod Pepper (Capnicnm) of modern trade, the more strictly botanical writers are 

 very nearly unanimous in the opinion that capsicum was not known in Europe 

 prior to the discovery of America. In passing it may further be observed that 

 all the older authors speak of siliquaatrum as coming from Calicut, from which 

 circumstance it may be inferred to have been the cardamom a spice which to 

 this day is almost exclusively derived from that port and which has been as- 

 sociated with the Malabar Coast of India from the remotest antiquity. At all 

 events Amatus on Dioscorides (pub. 1554) distinctly confuses capsicum with 

 cardamom. Fuchs (Comment, de I' Hist, des PL, 1542-9, ch. 281 ; also Hiat. 

 Stirp., 1555, 797) gives an account of " Siliquastro or Piperitis," which by 

 some is called " Indian or Chalechut Pepper," " Cardamom," " Spanish Pepper," 

 etc., and which Avicenna speaks of under the name of " Zingiber caninum." 



264 



