PIPER 



NIQRUM 



Madras 



Dwarf Form. 



Leaves 



arranged 



definitely. 



Diseases 

 and Pests. 



Wilt. 



Area. 



Eelworm. 



Wilt-proof 

 Stock. 



Trade. 



THE PEPPER PLANT 



together, and though abundantly supplied with stamens, yet the plant 

 may be spoken of as less fixed as a type. 



Cheriakodi. This name is given to a well-marked variety, small in 

 all its parts a dwarf form, under 15 feet in height. The leaves are not 

 large and the spikes are small and crowded with small berries. The 

 leaves are arranged uniformly over one another like the tiles of a house, 

 almost vertically downwards, and thus hiding a large number of spikes. 



Under each of these main forms there are several recognisable races as 

 well as two well-marked jungle peppers that have found their way into 

 estates. These are characterised by dark-green leaves, very large berries, 

 and an immense growth on tall forest-trees, and usually hairy spikes. 



Diseases and Pests. Until quite recently very little had been pub- 

 lished on these subjects. Butler (Agri. Journ. Ind., i., pt. i., 30-6) gives 

 an instructive account of the Pepper Wilt. He suspects this disease first 

 appeared in the Wynaad district of Malabar about 1900. By 1904 he 

 found alarm general. The disease had produced a vast amount of damage 

 in three or four years. . " Its possibilities in this direction," says Butler, 

 " are evident from the fact that over four thousand acres of pepper culti- 

 vation are in the hands of Europeans in South Wynaad, and perhaps five 

 times as many are grown by Natives. A far greater amount is grown in 

 the coast districts of Malabar, but it is impossible to estimate how much 

 this may be." He then describes the appearance of the diseased 

 plants. The leaves first droop, the production of leaf is discontinued, the 

 stems of the vine separate from the support or standard owing to the decay 

 of the clinging roots, the leaves turn yellow and fall off, and lastly the 

 whole vine withers. A similar disease appeared in Cochin-China and Java 

 about the same time as in India, and was attributed by Prof. W. Zim- 

 mermann and Dr. van Breda de Haan to the parasitic worm Heterodera 

 radicicola the common root eelworm. Doubt was thrown by Barber 

 and others on the possibility of the eelworm being the sole cause, and 

 Butler, in the paper above indicated, has shown that the primary cause 

 is a Nectria fungus closely allied to, if not identical with that discussed 

 under arhar, Cajanus indicus (see p. 198). Butler concludes that a 

 critical study of the varieties and races of the pepper-vine with a view 

 to discover or produce a wilt-proof form, is the only satisfactory method 

 of dealing with the disease. 



[C/. Garcia de Orta, Coll., xlvi ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 3rd ser., i., 

 671 ; Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 19-29 ; Linechoten, Voy. E. Ind., 1598 

 (ed. Hak). Soc.), ii., 68, 72-5 ; Boym, Fl. Sin., 1656, Q ; Bontius, Hist. Nat. 

 et Med. Ind. Or., 1629, in Piso, Ind. Utri. re Nat. et Med., 1658, 103 ; Thevenot, 

 Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 1687, pt. iii., 88; Ligon, Hist. Barbados, 1657, 

 79 ; Alexander Hamilton, New Ace. E. Ind., 1727, i., 298, 301 ; Bennett, Wan- 

 derings in N.-S. Wales, 1834, ii., 180 ; Kept. Ind. Hemp Drugs Comm., iv., 59, 

 260 ; Nicholls, Textbook Trop. Agri., 1892, 200-3 ; The Bower Manuscript 

 (Hoernle, transl.), 1893-7, 78, 85, etc. ; Ind. Agrist., Oct. 2, 1905, xxx., 311-2 ; 

 Trop. Agrist., Oct. 1905, xxv., 563-4.] 



TRADE. The trade in pepper is perhaps the oldest, and during the 

 Middle Ages was the most important branch of commerce between Europe 

 and the East. In the early days, the Malabar Coast had a practical 

 monopoly of the trade. Gradually, however, more and more pepper was 

 cultivated in, and exported from, the Malay Archipelago, and localities 

 farther east, till, as early as the beginning of the 19th century, the Indian 

 production had shrunk into relative insignificance. The following gives a 

 brief summary of the conditions of the trade. 



900 



