THE VASCULAR ANATOMY OF PIPER METHYSTICUM 
‘CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY 218 
RacHeLt E. Horrstapt 
(WITH TWENTY-THREE FIGURES) 
Historical 
Linnaeus, placed the Piperaceae in the monocotyledons among 
the Aroidaceae; Jussieu held that they were near the Urticaceae; 
Kuntu (8) and Biume ranked them with the monocotyledons. 
De CANDOLLE (4), however, following Jussieu, stated that the 
embryo characters indicated their dicotyledonous character. 
ENGLER and PRANTL (5) put the tribe Piperales among the lower 
Archichlamydeae. Included in it are 4 families: Saururaceae, 
Piperaceae, Chloranthaceae, and Lacistemaceae. The genus 
Piper contains over 1,000 species. MIQUEL (10) separates 7 
species from the original classification on the basis of the presence 
or absence of his so-called ‘‘stipula oppositifolia’’ and persistence 
of the petiole. Among these is Piper methysticum Forst., which he 
calls Macropiper methysticum. ENGLER and PRANTL (5), using 
as a basis of their classification of these two genera the method of 
branching in the floral regions, retain the name of Forster. 
Piperaceae have attracted much attention because of their 
anomalies, both in anatomical and reproductive features. The 
former have been described in many species. MiIQuet (10) 
asserted that the internode of the stem ends blindly in the petiole, 
and the next internode develops from a bud between the petiole 
and the end of the foregoing node. He stated also that there are 
alternate, opposite, and whorled leaves on the same branch. The 
latter he concluded were atrophies, and the number of internodes 
which would have been produced would have been the same num- 
ber as the whorls of leaves. Santo (11) described in detail the 
structure and the course of the bundles in the stem of Peperomia 
blanda. Scumitz (12) verified the work of Sanrio in Peperomia. 
He concluded that the peripheral bundles in Piper were joined at 
115] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 62 
