182 THE PEPPER VINES. 



that three thousand pepper-vines will produce 

 fifty peculs of pepper annually. 



The pepper vines are planted in rows, a short 

 distance apart one from the other, and were, in 

 this instance, trailed up split pieces of dead 

 wood, which served as a prop to the vines ; some 

 were tied to their support ; but generall}^ they 

 naturally attached themselves, by giving out fas- 

 ciculi of roots from the joints, at certain distances. 



Plantain trees were occasionally seen in the 

 pepper plantations, probably for the certain 

 degree of shade and moisture they may have 

 afforded. It is said, that a pepper plantation 

 will not thrive unless it be near one of the Gam- 

 bir shrubs, or rather upon an estate where the 

 Gambir extract is prepared. This was con- 

 sidered to result from the refuse leaves of the 

 Gambir, after boiling, being requisite as manure 

 for the vines. From my own observation, I ascer- 

 tained this not to be the precise reason of tlie 

 pepper-vines thriving better where Gambir- 

 boiling houses and plantations existed, but 

 from the Gambir leaves, after they had under- 

 gone the boiling process in the manufacture of 

 the extract from . them, l)eing strewn thickly 

 over the surface of the ground between the vines, 

 for the purpose of preserving it in a cool and 



