488 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Common Black-Pepper is the fruit of P. nigrum? (figs. 497, 503-506), 

 indigenous in India, the cultivation of which has been essayed in 

 nearly all tropical regions, especially Java and Sumatra. It is 

 generally thought 2 that the same fruit, freed from the pericarp, con- 

 stitutes the White Pepper of commerce, which, though less active, 3 

 is more used as a spice. Cubebs or Tailed Pepper, so much used in 

 medicine for the same purpose as Copaiva, is the pedicellate fruit 

 (fig. 508) of P. Cubeba,' a native of Java and Borneo. With it are 

 sold under the same name the berries of P. caninum : 5 they are a 

 little smaller, more oval, and end in a rostrate apiculum ; besides 

 beinc less aromatic, acrid and bitter, and with a stronger taste of 

 Anise. Moreover the dry fruit is brownish-black, with well marked 

 rugosities in P. canina, and the pedicel is of the same length as the 

 fruit ; while in P. Cubeba the fruit has a longer pedicel, and is 

 black and scarcely rugose. In fine, P. caninum is less active than 

 true Cubebs. 6 Long-Pepper, formerly used in making diascordium 

 and theriaca, but in much less demand now-a-days either as a drug 

 or a condiment, is the cylindrical compound fruit (fig. 507) of 

 P. longum' and officinarum? formed of a large number of sessile 

 berries. The Betel of the East, whose leaves are used all over 



1 See p. 496, note 2. — Nees & Eberm., 

 Handb., i. 98; PI. Med., 21.— Guib., loc. tit., 

 272, fig. 414. — R£v., in Fl. Med. du xix e Steele, 

 hi. 98. 



2 " Sucb is the usually received opinion touch- 

 ing the origin of White- Pepper ; however, it 

 would seem from a passage of Garcias ab Hobto 

 (Dujardin), supported hy figures given by 

 Cltjsius (Fxot., 182), that the White- Pepper 

 plant is not identical with the Black-Pepper... 

 I conclude that if nowadays the White-Pepper 

 is in great part Black-Pepper without the skin, 

 yet there exists a plant which more distinctly 

 bore its name, and formerly was its chief source." 

 (Guib., loc. cit., 273, note 2.) 



3 Both contain an essence lighter than water 

 (C 10 H 8 ), starch, and a crystallizable matter, 

 lighter than water, extracted by Pelletieb (in 

 Ann. Chim. et Phys., xvi. 337), and named 

 Piperin (C 31 H^N 2 6 ), — See Guib., loe. cit., 

 273 ; Pliarm. Pain., ed. 3, 704. 



4 See p. 470, note 6.— Nees & Eberm:., 

 Handb., i. 102.— Bl., in Act. Bat., xi. 200, fio-. 

 21.— -Lindl., Fl. Med., 313.— Pereira, FAem 

 Mat. Med., ed. 4, ii. p. i. 391.— Gpib., loc cit, 

 274, fig. 415.— Berg. & Schmidt, Off. Geiv , ii 

 t. 29 a.— Rty., in Fl. Med. du xix. e Siecle, i. 424 



5 Dietr., Sp., i. 681.— C. PC., Prod,:, n. 

 412. — Guib., loc. cit., 275. — Pereira, loe. cit., 

 391.—? P. Cubeba Roxb., FL Ltd., i. 159 (nee 

 L.). — Cubeba canina Micj., Syst., 293. 



6 They both contain a green essence (C 20 H 32 

 according to Watts), an acrid resin, and a crystal- 

 lizable substance named cubebin (C 34 H''0 10 ), by 

 Soubeiran (in Jonm. Pharm., xxv. 355). 



7 See p. 470, note 4. 



8 DC, Prodr., n. 478. — P. longum Rumph., 

 Herb. Amboin., v. 433, t. 116, fig. 1.— Piso, 

 Mant. Arom., 182, icon, (nee L.). — Bl., Fnunt. 

 PI. Jav., i. 70. — P. Amalago L., Spec., 41 (exi-1. 

 syn.t. — ? P. Melamiris Hili, Diet., xxvi. t. 16, 

 fig. 3. — Chavica cfficinarum Miq., Syst, 256; 

 III., 39, t. 34.— Guib., loc. cit., 276. — Rosenth., 

 loe. cit., 178. — C. maritima Miq., Syst., 262. — 

 C. Labillardieri Miq., Syst., 263. — Pharmacum 

 magnum vulgare Rumph., Herb. Amboin., 42, t. 

 26, fig. 1. There is a third Long-Pepper in 

 India j its fruit is used as spice, and its roots are 

 sold under the name of Pippula-moola. It is 

 Chavica HoxburgMi Miq. (Syst., 239; III., 

 t. 30, n. 256), which, as a form with slender 

 fruit, belongs to P. longum L., not to P. qffici- 

 narum. 



