VITEBACEJE. 



1.69 



II. PEPPER SERIES. 



The study of the Peppers 1 may be commenced by that of the 

 Common- or Black-Pepper (Poivrier Commun, or P. Noir ; figs. 497, 

 503-50G). Its flowers, hermaphrodite or unisexual, are in long 

 spikes, each flower axillary to a bract. In the former kind, we see 



, X 



Piper (Eiipiper) nigrum. 



in a pit above the bract, edged by a prominent crest on either side, 3 

 a free gynseceum ; on either side of this is a stamen, formed of a short, 

 often flattened filament, inserted below the ovary, and a basifixed 

 articulated anther, whose two adnate cells open by longitudinal 

 clefts, then parting into four valves to free the pollen.' The ovary 



1 Piper L., Gen., n. 43 (part). — Adaxs., 

 Fam. des PL, ii. 262. — J., Gen., 405. — Gjertn., 

 Fruct., ii. 67, t. 92. — Lamk., Diet., v. 457 ; 

 Suppl., iv. 454; III., t. 23.— Endl., Gen., n. 

 1820. — MiQ., Stfst. riperac, Kotterd., 8vo. 

 (1843, 44), 305. — Schnizl., Iconogr., t. 81.— 

 Lem. & Dcne., Tr. Gen., 502.— C. DC, Prodr., 

 xvi. sect. i. 240. — Saurwrus Plum, (part.) nee 

 L. (inch : Artanthe MiQ., Callianira Miq., 

 Carpunya Peesl, Caulobryon Kl., Chavica 

 MiQ. (part.), Coccobryon Kx., Cubeba Miq., 

 EncJcea K., HecJceria K., Macropiper MiQ., 

 Muldera Miq., Nematanthera MiQ., Ottonia 

 Spbexg., Pofomorphe Miq., Rhyncholepis Miq., 

 Schilleria K., Schizonephros Geiff., Serronia 

 Gaudich. & Guillem., Sphcerostachys MiQ., 

 Steffensia K„ Zippelia Bl. 



2 P. nigrum L., Spec., 40. — W., Spec, i. 



150. — Spach, Suit, a Buffon, t. 125.— Miq. 

 Sgst., 308 ; III., 50, t. 50.— C. DC, Prodr., 363 

 n. 502. — P. spurium Link, Jahrb., i. 3, 60. — P. ? 

 colonum Peesl,, Bot. Bern., 112. — P. rotundum 

 nigrum Pl.FKN., Ahnag., 297, t. 437, fig. 1.— 

 Lada, aliis Molonga Pis., Mant. Arom., 180, 

 181. — Malago Cod Rheed., Ilort. Malab., vii. 

 23, t. 12. 



3 At first sight they look like large depressed 

 bractlets, but their absence in other allied types 

 leads to the view that they are merely the raised 

 edges of the pit hollowed out in the axis. They 

 are figured as two lateral curves in the diagram 

 (fig. 504). 



4 Generally formed of little ellipsoidal grains, 

 with a longitudinal fold. (H. Mohl, in Ann. 

 Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iii. 311.) 



