348 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



the wood is the presence of woody bundles (sometimes forming a complete 

 ring) in the pith. The tribe Peperotniete are said by C. de Candolle to 

 have no cambium ring. The Piperce always have a cambium ring. 

 Their nearest relations are Chloranthacese and Saururacese ; but they 

 differ from the former in the sac of the embryo, the erect seed, and the 

 alternate leaves ; from the latter in the simple ovary and the absence of 

 stipules. They are more distantly related to Urticacese. 



Distribution. A large Order, the species of which are for the most part 

 tropical ; most abundant in the hottest parts of America and of the East- 

 Indian islands, in damp situations. 



Qualities and Uses. Pungent and aromatic, more or less astringent 

 or narcotic. Black Pepper consists of the dried fruits of Piper nigrtnn ; 

 White Pepper is the same with the fleshy epicarp removed by washing. 

 Long Pepper consists of the dried spikes of Chavica Roxlurghii (Piper 

 longum} ; other species of Chavica are used in India and Tropical America, 

 with Artanthe adunca, &c. The leaves of Chavica Betle are chewed, mixed 

 with slices of the Betel Nut (Areca oleracea) and lime, by the Malays and 

 other Indian races. The ripe fruits of Cubeba officinalis, canina, WalUchii, 

 &c. form Cubebs, or Cubebs Pepper, and have aromatic, stimulant, and 

 purgative properties ; Artanthe elongata and adunca are said to have 

 similar virtues. Macropiper methysticum, the Ava or Kava of the South- 

 Sea Islands, has powerful narcotic properties. The leaves, or powdered 

 leaves of Artanthe elongata are also esteemed as a styptic, known by the 

 name of Matico, in South America (other plants are also called by this 

 name, such as Eupatorium glutinosum). Most of the plants of this Order 

 possess some of the above properties, more or less powerfully marked ; 

 Artanthe crocata yields a yellow dye, obtained from the spikes of frint. 



SAUBUBACEJE constitute a small group of aquatic or marsh plants 

 of North America, China, and North India, related to Piperacese, but 

 differing in the compound ovaries and stipulate leaves and wood destitute 

 of bundles in the pith. They are more or less acrid. Saururus cernuus is 

 sometimes used in medicine, an irritating cataplasm being made from the 

 root. 



CEBATOPHYLLACE^E are aquatic herbs with whorled, finely dissected 

 leaves, and minute axillary and sessile monoecious flowers, without floral 

 envelopes, but with an 8-12-cleft involucre in place of a calyx ; the fertile 

 flower is merely a simple 1-celled ovary? with a suspended orthotropous 

 ovule; the seed filled by a highly developed embryo with 2 cotyledons and a 

 conspicuous plumule ; radicle very short, inferior, The genus Ceratophyl- 

 lum, of which some authors describe 6 species, while others reduce them 

 to 1, constitutes this Order, consisting of aquatic plants with whorls of 

 leaves, and having almost the appearanceof someConfervoids. Therelations 

 oiCeratophyllmn are obscure : it has been connected with the Ilaloragaceae 

 from its resemblance to Myriophyllum, while Lindley places it provisionally 

 among his Urticales, and Baillon refers it to Piperaceee. The most re- 

 markable point is the structure of* the seed, which is aperispermic, and 

 consists principally of 2 fleshy cotyledons, inside which stand a decus- 

 sating pair of leaves, and within these, surrounded by withered endo- 



