THE CAPSICUM OR RED PEPPER 



liiohw (New Kreiiterb., 1563, 210) givee a good plate of <ai>* < .d calls 



.1 popper." He says it is a foreign plant lately introduced into gardens 

 . niimiv, an. i subsequently (MrtL r^/i ///.. l.'iTI. :i-2) he remarks that it 

 . I. \inu> mistake to confuse CtojMleiMM with <* MIOMIMMI. Loll 



;. l.".Ti>, K14) observ.-.s that within his memory this plant (of whn-h 



i gum I plate) has been brought from Goa and the shores of Calicut. 



!.. ii<> ilonlit. therefore, that the Portuguese had very early introduced 



i. -mil into (jo. i, ami very possibly commenced to export it, in competition 



uitli th.' tun- pepper, hence Lobel as an after-thought may have associated 



Hi with the nrw emporium Ooa. Clusius (review of Garcia de Orta) in the 



iticum, published in 1574, makes no mention of -ui>*i , so that it may 



I i In- plant had not been seen by Garcia de Orta in India. A little later, 

 i lusius (Hist. Exot. PL, 1605, 340) under Capsicum brazilianum or wild 

 ISLT\ es t liat Spanish or American popper was brought from the Spanish 

 Indies mid earned to India by the Portuguese under the name of Pernam- 

 I'epper. Jacobus Bontius (Hist. Nat. et Med. Ind. Or., in Piso, Ind. Utri 

 Mfd., 1658, 130-1), who wrote in 1629, describes this pepper under 

 , of l.'i'ln Chili and Brazilian Ricinus, a fact that led some authors to 

 'use it with Kit-inn* iitintnniH the Castor Oil. \Cf. Paul usdSgineta (Adams, 

 anal.), iii., 171.] Rheede (Hort. Mai., 1679, ii., 109, pi. 56, in a note by John 

 celin) remarks that the capo-molago or Indian pepper described by him 

 reality Brazilian pepper, the prefix capo or capro denoting its introduction 

 Arab traders ; his plate is a typical example of <'uimi<-itm frntrnrriin. It 

 i i< -ally the same plant which Rochefort calls axi or carive ; which Recchius 

 !l-*t. New Spain) describes as chilli or Mexican pepper ; possibly also that 

 i Piso calls by its Brazilian name quiya ; which Elizabeth Blackwell figures 

 mill describes in her Curious Herbal (1739, i., pi. 161) ; and which Hernandius 

 (Hist. PL Nov. Hisp., 1790, i., 277-82) discusses and illustrates most fully as 

 : the forms of *;>;<<*. In a further passage Rheede gives a plate of the 

 ''i/>o-molago, which is doubtless var. yi-oima, and was thus apparently a 

 recent introduction into India than the capo-molago. [Cf. Labat, Nouv. Voy. 

 aux Isles de VAmerique, 1724, ii., 68 ; Milburn, Or. Comm., ii., 208 ; Bentham, 

 Notes on Targioni-Tozzetti, Cult. PL, in Journ. Hort. Soc., 1855, ix., 141 ; Henry, 

 Econ. Bot. China, 39 ; Semler, Trap. Agrik., 1900, ii., 284-5 ; Pharm. Soc. Mus. 

 Repts., 1895-1902, 58.] 



\\'ith a history so full and so pertinent (many other authors might be cited), 

 indeed surprising that one of the greatest of Eastern botanical authors, 

 nearly a hundred years after the appearance of Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus, 

 should have affirmed in the most emphatic manner possible his belief that at 

 least certain forms of */*! HM had not only been cultivated in India from the 

 most ancient times, but that it was the siliquastrum of Pliny and Capsicum 

 orientale of Actuarius. Rumphius (Herb. Amb., 1750, v., 247-52, pi. 88, ff. 1-4) 

 advanced those opinions without observing that many of the passages in his own 

 admirable and detailed account contradicted his main contention. For 

 example, while commenting on Rheede's Malabar name molago, he deprecatingly 

 observes that no mention is made of its daily and well-known use as a condi- 

 ment. It never seems to have occurred to Rumphius that Rheede's silence 

 on that point, as also the fact that Marco Polo (1286-96) and Garcia de Orta 

 '') made no reference at all to capsicum (though they discuss ordinary 

 pepper and the cardamom), might be accounted for by the belief that the 

 capsicums were unknown to the Natives of India in the time of Marco Polo, and 

 even so late as that of Garcia de Orta, while they were but imperfectly under- 

 stood in Rheede's time. Rumphius describes three main forms of <vi^*i-um. 

 which he calls (a) the great red capsicum, the ritsje of the Dutch and recche of 

 the Portuguese in India, the tschili besar or tschili-ayer of the Natives ; (b) the 

 lesser red capsicum a fruticose plant called tschili-mera ; and (c) the yellow 

 "j.irifMi known as tschili-cuning. Rumphius then adds that the Portuguese 

 write the West Indian name axi as achi, hence comes the Indian name achar, 

 which the Dutch render atsjar a word which lias the same meaning as reccheado, 

 namely pickles. It will thus be seen that practically the entire series of ver- 

 nacular names mentioned by Rumphius, far from their establishing an ancient 

 knowledge in India, would seem to prove that the introduction of the plant may 

 have taken place somewhere about the middle of the 17th century. The names 

 in use in India to-day are clearly of foreign or modern origin, such as chillies, 

 lal-marcha (= red pepper), goa-mircha and me like. There are, in fact, no ancient 



265 



CAPSICUM 



History 



Brought from 

 Ooa. 



Pemambuco 



ivpr-r. 



Early Indian 

 Ptotonti 



Rheede verttu 

 Rumphius. 



Gracia de Orta 

 and Marco Polo. 



Modern N 



