260 FAMILY HERBAL. 



Tlic fruit is used, and it is excellent against all 

 coldnesses and crudities upon the stomach. It 

 gives appetite in these cases, anci assists digestion. 

 It is also good against dizzinesses of the head, and 

 against obstructions of the liver and spleen, and 

 against colics. We arc; apt to neglect things as 

 medicines, that we take will food ; hut there is 

 hardly a more powerful sm pie of its kind than 

 pepper, when given singly, a&d on an empty sto- 

 mach. 



White Pepper. Piper Album. 



THE common white pepper we meet with, is 

 made from the black, by soking it in sea water till 

 it swells, and the dark wainkled coat falls off; 

 but this though the common, is not the true white 

 pepper : there is another kind, which is natural, and 

 has no assistance from art. The white pepper plant, 

 has round, thick, and whitish stalks: they lie upon 

 the ground, and have large joints : at each joint stands 

 a single leaf, which is long, and narrow, sharp at 

 the end. and ribbed. The flowers grow on little 

 stalks, hanging down from the joints : they are 

 small and \ellow. The fruit is round ; at first 

 green, and when ripe white, which is gathered and 

 dried for use. 



This fruit is used. The common white pepper 

 is milder than the black ; that is, it is black pepper, 

 which has lost a part of its virtue : this possesses all 

 the qualities of the other, and yet it has not so sharp 

 a taste. 



Tfce Long Pepper Plant. Piper longum. 



AN American plant, in some degree resembling 

 the other peppers in its general growth, but not 



