892 BENGAL PLANTS. [ Piper. 
791. Piper Linn. 
Shrubs, rarely herbs, erect or scandent, often glandular or 
aromatic; branches with swollen nodes; leaves entire, often 
oblique ; , various. Flowers dicwcious, very rarely her- 
maphrodite, m spiked, each in the axil of a bract, with or 
without 2 eel ee ; bracts peltate or ea and adnate 
to rachis, sometimes decurrent, with or without raised margins ; 
bracteoles when present forming low ridges on each side of the 
fl , or connate and semi-lunar. Perianth 0. Stamens 2-4, | 
rarely 5 or more; filaments short ; anthers 2-celled ; 
distinct, or terminal divaricate, distinct or confluent. Carpels 
connate in a 1-celled ovary; ovule anes erect; style short, 
conic, beaked, or 0; stigmas 2-5. Fruit a small ovoid or globose, - 
1-seeded berry. Seed usually oes pie thin ; albumen floury 
within, with hardened periphery 
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Fruits small, in dense, cylindric spikes; bracts orbicular, peltate :— 
Leaves 3-5-nerved at the very obliquely cordate base, with 3-5 pairs of 
alternate nerves along the midrib above ; stems stout, climbing ; leaves 
all very shortly petiol haba. 
Leaves 5-7-nerved from the equal or sometimes slightly ‘atten hail 
or (P. sylvaticum oredonnlieae “ the inner pair of nerves leaving 
the midrib a little above the b; 
Leaves all a — 
Leaves firmly coriaceous, 5-7-nerved, ovate-oblong or ovate-cor- 
date, basal lobes often a a Terug rather long, those of the 
upper leaves never less than Betle. 
Leaves thinly membranous ; Bail lobes always eq 
Leaves long-petioled (petioles of lower leaves 241 in. long), 5-7- 
nerved, wide-ovate; base deep-cordate; stems ial 1 branches 
ae rarer a low ‘ereeper ine 
icin daa: an lobes equal; upper sessile, stemn-claepilla 
os longum. 
na r basal lobes sae a 
Fruits larger, in loose, interrupted spikes; leaves all petioled (petioles 
5-2 in. long), coriaceous, val or oblong or rounded ; base never col 
date, often slightly oblique, 3-9-nerved from above the base :— 
