Capsicum annuum (Red Pepper). 

 Fruit used 



SOLANACE^. 193 



stigma bluut. Fruit drooping, euuical, 1 to 2 iuches long, pod with a thiu 

 siitill, reddisli-yellow when ripe, 2-celled, many-seeded ; seeds yeliowish-white, 

 flat, iciduey-shaped. 



2. C. fastigiatam, L. (Cayenne I'epjier. 

 Bird repi)er.) Lilce tlie last, except tliat 

 the tiowers are in clusters of 2 to 3, and 

 that the fruit is very small and in the shape 

 of a cock's spur, and the pungency very 

 much sharper. 



3. C. frutescens. (Cayenne Pepper.) 

 Much cultivated ; is like the last, except 

 that the pods are larger, and more pungent. 



These three bear the most ])ungent fruit, 

 and furnish the red pepper of commerce. 



4. C. grossum, W. (Bell Pepper. Bull 

 Pepper.) This is unlike any of the above, 

 inasmucli as the fruit is not only very large, 

 but the walls of the pod are thick and 

 succulent, anil very mild as to pungency. 

 Pod from 2 to 6 iuches long, and from 1 to 4 inches in diameter, 

 for pickling. 



(jeography. — The home of the capsicum is America. It is believed that it 

 was first brought to the notice of Europeans as a condiment for food by the 

 physician of the fieet on the second voyage of Columbus to the New World. 

 It is now cultivated in almost every civilized country in the world where the 

 climate admits of its cultivation. The southern Asiatics have names of their 

 own for it ; this goes U) show tliat it is also indigenous there, but it has never 

 been found in the Old World outside of cultivation ; on ilie other hand, it has 

 been found wild in Soutli America. Capsicum is a tropical and subtropical 

 plant, though it fruits in southern Europe, and in the United States as far 

 north as the 43d ])avallel. It is grown in all tropical countries as a condiment 

 or food. The West India islands, middle 

 Africa, and southern Asia are all grateful 

 regions of this fiery fruit. The outer skin of 

 the fruit, as well as tlie seed, yields a red oil. 



Fjjjmoloq}!. — Capsicum is supposed to be 

 derived from the Greek word kotttos, strong, 

 iillnding to the pungent taste of the fruit poils. 

 It lias also been derived from na^a, a coffer, 

 box, or chest, referring to the pod which 

 holds the seeds Annuum is Latin, and means 

 " yearly ;"/r»/e,scp».s, having the apjjearance of 

 a ^\\Y\\\^\ fastigiatum, tapering, or ))yramidal , 

 i/rossum, from the Latin (/rossus, thick, referring 

 to the thick i)od of this species. Pepper comes 

 from the (ireek triirfpt, and Cni/enne refers to the 

 country whence the l)est is brouglit. 



Use. — As a medicine, capsicum is highly 

 stimulant ; a tea of rod ])ep])er is a s])ecific in nausea, largely used in com- 

 pounding the medicines of the Thompsonian practitioners The ground fruit, 

 Pk. Fl.— 14 



Capsicum grossum (Bell Peppert. 



