Miscellaneous. 28] 
finely-pitted testa. Albumen mealy, often horny at the outer part. 
Species all Asiatic. 
Chavica Betle, Miq., and Chavica Siriboa, Miq., are frequently 
cultivated throughout the East Indies ; their sharp aromatic leaves, 
with chalk and areca nuts, furnish the material for the habit of betel- 
chewing, universal in those countries. 
The three following species are to be named as the plants fur- 
nishing the officinal Piper longum :— 
1. Chavica peepuloides, Miq.—The younger branches, as well as 
the leaf- and flower-stalks, are clothed with fine hairs; the leaves 
smooth, membranous, and with transparent dots; the lower ovate, 
seven-nerved, rounded at the base, attenuated at the apex ; the upper 
unequal, lanceolate, with an attenuated apex, five-nerved. Male 
catkins shortly stalked, slender, with circular bracts ; the female also 
shortly stalked and cylindrical. 
Synonym, Piper peepuloides, Roxb. 
2. Chavica Roxburghii, Mig.—A forked-branched, trailing shrub, 
only erect during the flowering period, with stems at first finely 
hairy, afterwards smooth, and thick membranous leaves at first 
clothed with fine hair on the nerves, afterwards smooth, covered 
with fine transparent dots. The lower leaves have long stalks, are 
roundish, with broadly-cordate base ; the upper are sessile, of a more 
elongated form, and with an unequally-cordate base embracing the 
stem. The male catkins filiform, cylindrical, with their stalk as long 
as the leaf; female scarcely half as long, but thicker than the male ; 
the stems as long as the catkins. 
Synonym, Piper longum, L. Z. Thl. Abbildg.; Nees, Plant. Me- 
diec., tab. 23. 
This species, growing wild in damp thickets throughout the fron- 
tier of India and cultivated frequently in Bengal, yields like the 
preceding the Piper longum coming from the English colonies, which 
is gathered in January, and consists of the fruit-catkins dried in the 
sun. In India they use instead of these the roots and stem of the 
plant cut in small pieces. 
3. Chavica officinarum, Miq.—A climbing shrub, with coria- 
ceous leaves covered with fine transparent dots, smooth and paler 
below ; the lower are longer-stalked, 3—5-nerved and ovato-cordate ; 
the upper more shortly stalked, more elongated, with an unequal 
rounded or attenuated base and an attenuated apex. The stalks of 
the catkins are longer than the leaf-stalks. The female catkins are 
short and cylindrical, slenderer towards the apex. 
Synonym, Piper longum, Rumph, Blume, Linn. in part. 
This species grows wild in the Philippines, the Sunda Islands 
(perhaps also in Bengal), and is cultivated particularly in the island 
of Java, in the neighbourhood of the sea. It yields the Piper longum 
coming from the Dutch colonies. The dried catkins smell strongly 
aromatic, and have a sharp burning aromatic taste, stronger than 
black pepper. They are of a grayish-brown or graytsli-cinnamon 
colour; their stalk is roundish, compressed, somewhat woody, curved, 
1} eentim. long, and almost smooth. They are thick, cylindrical, 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvi. ps 
