PIPEBAGEjE. 487 



Piperacece are, generally speaking, tropical plants, always except- 

 ing SaururecB and Ceratophyllece, chiefly spread over the temperate 

 and cold parts of the Northern hemisphere. Houttuynia and Gymno- 

 thecus are exclusively Asiatic, and so is one species of Saiirurus ; the 

 other, like Anemiopsis, is confined to North America. In Piperece 

 all the species of Chavica come from Tropical Asia and Java. Ver- 

 huellia is American, save one species from the banks of the Nile. 

 Piper 1 and Peperomia are spread over all tropical and subtropical 

 regions in both Worlds ; but not evenly, for in 1 849 Miquel described 

 five hundredand twenty-one species, whereof three hundred and ninety- 

 two belong to the New World, leaving only one hundred and twenty- 

 nine to the Old. The latter are thus distributed : Africa, 1 9 ; Australia, 

 19 ; Asia, 91. Their limits are 35° N. lat., and 42° S. They are 

 especially common in America within 30° S., and some species extend 

 beyond the Tropic of Capricorn ; in the Andes they become humble 

 and herbaceous. In the Indian Archipelago and Malaysia they are 

 nearly as numerous as in America ; but their number diminishes on 

 the continent of Asia ; they are rare in the Himalayas and China. 

 They are also rare in Australia, and extend up to 40° S. in New 

 Zealand. They are also found at the Cape, but are far more common 

 in Madagascar and the Mascarene islands ; and a few species advance 

 northwards as far as the Nile valley. All of them affect warm, 

 damp, dark valle}^, and the neighbourhood of watercourses ; they 

 are rare on heights. 2 



The various parts of most Piperads, and especially their leaves 

 and fruits, are gorged with a peculiar essential oil, a more or less 

 acrid resin, and a crystalline matter, which render them odoriferous 

 and aromatic, pungent, stimulant, or irritant, or tonic, stomachic, 

 and digestive. Hence they are used 3 as spices, condiments, and 

 sialogogue aperients, or as drugs in fluxes, catarrhs, rheumatics, &c. 



1 Of the genus Piper the whole section Schi- 2 Miq., Si/st., 37, 554 bis. — Endl., Enchirid., 



zonepliros belongs to the Old World, while the 150. 



sections Enchea, Carpanya, Nematanthera, are 3 Endl., Enchirid., 150.— Lindl., Fl. Med., 



confined to the New. Eupiper, Potomorphe, 310,635. — Guib., Drog. Simpl., ed. 6, ii. 271. — 



and Steffensia are represented in both ; while of Rosenth., Syn. PI. Diaphor., 175, 1102. 

 the section Apopiper one species is American, 

 the other is Australian. 



