K LONG PEPPER 321 



from which spring the large and delicate flowers. In 

 these the corolla has one erect lanceolate lobe, and two 

 narrow linear ones, white or pale violet, and a large, 

 spreading, fan-shaped lip, white tinted with rose, with 

 a red and yellow blotch at the base. The fruit is pear- 

 shaped, 3 or 4 in. long, red or orange, and containing 

 a large number of very small seeds. The seeds are 

 T ] (j in. through, hard, roundish, oval, bluntly angular, 

 golden brown in colour, aromatic and pungent. 



A good figure of this handsome plant is given in 

 Koscoe's Scitamineae PL and also in Trimen's Medical 

 Botany and in Johnson's Liberia. 



The plant appears to vary considerably and two 

 varieties are described, one the var. minor with smaller, 

 pale lavender flowers and narrower leaves (Botanical 

 Magazine, T. 5987), and the var. violascens, red, with 

 bright violet flowers. 



The plant is widely distributed in Sierra Leone and 

 Lower Guinea, as far as Angola. I cannot find that 

 it has ever been cultivated in any quantity anywhere 

 even in West Africa. The plant was cultivated in 

 Demerara some years ago and throve there, producing 

 fruit 5 in. long, but I find no record of the plant being 

 there now, in referring to the Garden reports of British 

 Guiana, Surinam, etc. % 



History. This spice was, it appears, earliest known 

 under the name Melegetae, a word derived from Melle 

 (Meli or Mely), a name for an empire in the upper 

 Niger country, formerly inhabited by the Mandingos. 

 The word is also commonly spelt Melegueta, Mellegette, 

 Mallaguetta, Manigeta, and Maniguetta, and the country 

 whence it was obtained was called by the Portuguese 

 Terra de Malaguet, or Costa di Maniguetta, and also 

 was known as the Grain Coast, or Pepper Coast, from 

 this spice. 



It does not appear that the spice was known 

 to the ancients, and the earliest record of it is in an 

 account of a festival held at Treviso in 1214, in which 

 an imitation fortress, held by twelve ladies and their 



Y 



