CAP 



stamina consist of numerous filiform patulous 

 filaments : the anthers are oblong, versatile, 

 inclined : the pistillum is a pedicelled germ : 

 there is no style : the stigma is obtuse and sessile : 

 the pericarpium is a corticose, one-celled, pedi- 

 celled berry : the seeds numerous, reniform, and 

 nestling. 



The species chiefly cultivated is C. spinosa, 

 Prickly Caper-Shrub. 



It is alow shrub, generally growing out of the 

 joints of old walls, the fissures of rocks, and 

 among rubbish, in its native situations : the 

 stems are woody, and covered with a white bark ; 

 they are trailing, round, smooth, and branching; 

 branches alternate, spreading, often downy and 

 leafy : the leaves are alternate, on short foot- 

 st.dks, spreading, oval or roundish, in the wild 

 plant often terminated by a little sharp point, 

 which disappears by culture, entire, veiny, suc- 

 culent, bright-green, and deciduous ; according 

 to some, four times as long as the foot-stalks : 

 the flowers are white slightly tinged with red, 

 numerous, axillary, solitary, large, and hand- 

 some, but inodorous. It grows wild in the 

 southern parts of Europe; and Dr. Smith re- 

 marks it as extraordinary, that this beautiful 

 shrub, so common in the south of France, and 

 which grows so luxuriantly in the open air, 

 trained against walls even at Paris, should 

 scarce be capable of being made to flower, ex- 

 cept with great care, in the stove with us. 



The flower-buds, produced in great plenty on 

 the wild plant, are used as a pickle. 



There is a variety, in which the leaves are 

 sharper at the ends. 



Culture. — These plants are raised with some 

 difficulty iu this climate, as in their native situa- 

 tions they grow in horizontal directions from the 

 fissures of rocks or other places. 



They are increased either by seeds or layers, 

 but the first is the method mostly employed, the 

 seeds being procured from abroad. In the seed 

 method they should be sown in the early spring 

 in pots filled with a compost of sand, fresh 

 mould, and rubbish, plunging them in a tan 

 hotbed; and, when the plants are of sufficient 

 growth, removing them into separate pots. 



In the latter mode the young branches should 

 be laid down in the early spring or summer by 

 slightly slittinp them; and when they have taken 

 good root, which is often a considerable length 

 of time before it is effected, they should be 

 removed into separate pots, and placed in the 

 tan hotbed. The roots obtained from the im- 

 porters are likewise planted for the purpose of 

 raising these shrubs in the spring or early sum- 

 mer months. 



These plant* flower best when placed in the 



CAP 



stove during the winter season, though they will 

 succeed under the protection of the greenhouse. 

 They require a pretty free admission of air and 

 sun when the weather is fire; but the waterings 

 should be sparing, especially in the winter 

 months. 



The plants are very ornamental and curious in 

 the stove or greenhouse. 



CAPSICUM, a genus affording plants of the 

 herbaceous annual and shrubby perennial exotic 

 kind. Guinea Pepper. 



It belongs to the class and order Pentandria 

 liionogijnia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Luridce. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed, live-cleft, erect, permanent perianthium : 

 the corolla is monopetalous, rotated ; tube very 

 short : border half-five-cleft, spreading, plaited ; 

 divisions broad and acute: the stamina consist 

 of five subulate filaments, very small: the an- 

 thers are oblong and converging: the pistillum 

 is a superior ovate germ: the style filiform, 

 longer than the stamens: the stigma obtuse: 

 the pericarpium is a berry without pulp, ap- 

 proaching to an ovate form, bilocular, hollow, 

 and coloured: the receptacles growing to the 

 dissepiment, exsuccous : the seeds are very many, 

 reniform, and compressed. 



The species cultivated are: I. C.annuum, Her- 

 baceous Annual Capsicum, or Guinea Pepper. 

 2. C. grossum, Heart-shaped Capsicum, or Bell 

 Pepper. 3. C. luccalam, Small-fruited Capsi- 

 cum, or Bird Pepper. 4. C.frwtescens, Shrubby 

 Capsicum. 



In the first the stem is herbaceous, annual, 

 two feet high, upright, and branched ; the 

 branches short and ascending; the leaves are 

 ovate-lanceolate, quite entire, smooth, dark- 

 green ; the flowers white, lateral, and solitarv; 

 the fruit is a berry or pod, varying much in size 

 and shape, extremely smooth and shining on the 

 outside, beautiful scarlet or jellow, inflated or 

 hollow, two-celled, sometimes three-celled; the 

 partitions at top commonly failing towards the 

 axis. It is a native of the West Indies. 



It varies extremely in its fruit, as in the Long- 

 podded annual kind, with oblong, pendulous or 

 hanging scarlet pods; with oblong, pendulous, 

 yellow pods; with upright, oblong, scarlet pods; 

 with short upright pods; with divided pods; 

 and with long very taper pods; all which often 

 rise from the same seed of the Common Long- 

 podded, Red or Yellow Capsicum, rarely alter- 

 ing from one to the other in colour, only in the 

 size and position of their growth. 



In the Heart-shaped kind, with both red and 

 yellow fruit; with roundish, heart-shaped, hang- 

 ing pods; with oblong, heart-shaped, hanging 



