FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONG! 583 



Production — In Bengal the plants are cultivated by suckers, and 

 require to be grown on a rich, high and dry soil ; they should be set 

 about five feet asunder. An English acre will yield in the first year 

 about three maunds (1 maund = 80 lbs.) of the pepper, in the second 

 twelve, and in the third eighteen; after which, as the plant becomes 

 less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and sold as 

 Pijdi-rnid, of which there is a large consumption in India as a medicine. 

 The ])epper is gathered in the month of January, when full grown, and 

 exposed to the sun until perfectly dry. After the fruit has been col- 

 lected, the stem and bi-anches die down to the ground.^ 



Description — Long pepper consists of a multitude of minute baccate 

 fruits, closel}^ packed around a common axis, the whole forming a spike 

 of li inch long and ^ of an inch thick. The spike is supported on 

 a stalk I an inch long; it is rounded above and below, and tapers slightly 

 towards its upper end. The fruits are ovoid, ^ of an inch long, crowned 

 with a nipple-like point (the remains of the stigma), and arranged 

 spirally with a small peltate bract beneath each. A transverse section 

 of a spike exhibits 8 to 10 separate fruits, disposed radially with their 

 narrower end pointed towards the axis. Beneath the pericarp, the thin 

 brown testa encloses a colourless albumen, of which the obtuser end is 

 occupied by the small embryo. 



The long pepper of the shops is greyish-white, and appears as if it 

 had been rolled in some earthy powder. When washed, the spikes 

 acquire their proper colour, — a deep reddish-brown. The drug has a 

 burning aromatic taste, and an agreeable but not powerful odour. 



The foregoing description applies to the long pepper of English 

 commerce, which is now obtained chiefly from Java (see next page), 

 where P, offi-cinaruni is the common species. In fact the fruits of this 

 latter, as presented to us by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden, 

 Buitenzorg, near Batavia, offer no characters by which we can distin- 

 guish them from the article found in the London shops. Those of 

 P. Beth L. var. y. cUnsum are extremely similar, but we do not know 

 that they are collected for use. 



Microscopic Structure — The structure of the individual fniits 

 resembles that of black pepper, exhibiting however some characteristic 

 differences. The epicarp has on the outside, tangentially-exteuded, 

 thick- walled, narrow cells, containing gum; the middle layer consists of 

 wider, thin-walled, obviously porous parenchyme containing starch and 

 drops of oil. In the outer and middle layers of the fruit numerous 

 large thick- walled cells are scattered, as in the external pericarp of Pijyer 

 nigmm; in long pepper, however, they do not foi-m a close circle. The 

 inner pericarp is formed of a row of large, cubic or elongated, radially- 

 arranged cells, filled with volatile oil. A row of smaller tangentially- 

 extended cells separates these oil-ceUs from the compact brown-red testa, 

 which consists of lignified cells like the inner layer of the testa of black 

 pepper, but without the thick-walled cells peculiar to the latter. The 

 albumen of long pepper is distinguished from that of black pepper by the 

 absence of volatile oil. 



Chemical Constituents — The constituents of long pepper appear 

 to be the same as those of black pepper. We ascertained the presence 

 ^ Roxburgh, Fltyra Jndica, i. (1832) 155. 



