352 NATURAL HISTORY. 



potatoes, and furnish the well known Maudioc meal. It 

 is necessary that the roots be well covered with earth, 

 as the exposed portion is very bitter. Yams are much 

 valued as a nutritive every day diet. 2. 



Calamus Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus). Leaves 

 linear, two-edged, sword-like ; roots creeping, long, 

 branching out vertically. Grows in swampy places, 

 margins of rivulets, etc. ; found everywhere in Europe, 

 abundant in Pennsylvania ; about five feet high, and 

 from the structure of its leaves has much the appearance 

 of a large sword-lily. The root, reddish outside, white 

 within, is pungent, bitter and aromatic to the taste, but 

 of an agreeable balsamic odor; preserved fresh with 

 sugar, it makes a pleasant medicine, used as a stomachic 

 and tonic. Originally a native of Asia. 2. 



The Pepper Bush (Piper nigrum), plate 27, fig. 2, 

 is shrub-like and climbing ; leaves ovoid, egg-shapod, 

 pointed, leathery, and naked ; flowers arranged in spicate 

 racemes. Fruit, composed of grains, about the size of 

 peas, which hang together in clusters of from twenty to 

 thirty, of a red color ; ripens in four months. Pepper is 

 taken from the bush before it is fully ripe, and left to 

 dry in the sun ; eight or ten days is sufficient for this 

 purpose : the red color is changed into black, the grains 

 hardened, and now become fitted for an article of com- 

 merce, it is exported and known as Black Pepper. White 

 pepper, which is considered superior to black, and com- 

 mands a higher price, is the fruit of the same plant and 

 the same berry, but divested of the red pulp ; used every- 

 where, and valued by all for its conservative properties, 

 no further description of this valuable spice is necessary, 

 since every one is familiar with its peculiar aromatic 

 odor and pungent taste. 



