PIPERACEiE. 567 



Piper longum, Linn., Sp. PI. 41 (in part) ; Rumphius, Amboina, v. t. 

 116, f. 1. 



This species is a native of the Philippine and Sunda Islands, and is much 

 cultivated in Java. It yields the Long Pepper of Sumatra and Java. The 

 dried catkins are very aromatic, have a pungent aromatic taste, stronger than 

 that of Black Pepper. They are of a grayish-brown or grayish-cinnamon 

 colour, their stalk is roundish, compressed, somewhat woody, curved and 

 almost smooth. They are thick, cylindrical, somewhat narrowed towards the 

 apex, thick at base, and facetted with a sort of network, of the projecting 

 apices of the berries. 



Besides these, some other species afford analogous products : P. chaba, 

 Hunter (Asiat. Resear., ix. 391); this may possibly be identical with the 

 last, as it grows in the islands, and Lindley speaks of it as furnishing the 

 Island Long Pepper; P. sylvaticum, Roxburgh (Fl. Ind. i. 156), or Moun- 

 tain Long Pepper, grows on the northern frontiers of Bengal, and is used 

 both in a green and ripe state. 



Long Pepper is very little employed in this country, either as a condiment 

 or in medicine. It contains Piperine and a pungent concrete oil, similar to 

 those in the Black Pepper. 



Two other species of this genus are much cultivated in the East Indies, for 

 their pungent, aromatic leaves, which 



with lime and areca nut, are the mate- Fig. 246. 



rials for betel chewing, so universal in 

 many oriental countries. These are C. 

 betle and C. siribosa. Betel produces 

 somewhat intoxicating effects, stimulates 

 the salivary glands to a great degree, 

 acts powerfully on the stomach, and 

 diminishes the perspiratory function' (see 

 Hooker, Bot. Mag. 3132). The juice of 

 the leaves is prescribed by Hindoo prac- 

 titioners as a febrifuge, and is also given 



in the indigestion of children, and in con- c. betle. 



junction with musk in hysteria (Ainslie, 



ii. 466). In tropical America the fruits of C. amalago are used as a condi- 

 ment, and Lunan (Hort. Jam. i. 51), says that the leaves and young shoots 

 are discutient, and an infusion of the root, resolutive, sudorific and diapho- 

 retic. The bark of C. majuscula, of Java, is held in esteem in Java as a 

 rubefacient in rheumatism. 



Cubeba. — Miquel. 



Flowers dioecious. Male catkins smaller, with sessile bracts, overlaying each other, 

 behind which are 2 — 5 stamens, with ovate or reniform 2-celled anthers. Female cat- 

 kins with almost sessile bracts, roundly peltate, often hairy beneath and persistent. 

 Ovary sessile, ovate ; stigmas 3 — 5, sessile, short, recurved. Berries pseudo-pedicellate. 

 Seeds roundish, with coriaceous or horny testa and mealy albumen. 



These are climbing shrubs, peculiar to the East Indies, and hotter parts of 

 Africa. The female plant is often distinguishable from the male by habit, 

 and the form of the leaf, but always by the catkins being thicker, and pre- 

 senting at maturity an almost clustered appearance. All the species furnish 

 what is called Cubeb Pepper, and were formerly included in Piper cubeba of 

 Linnseus. 



