

1^4 



1VIALAGUETA PEPPER. 



by the Brazilians in colds and coughs, and is 

 taken to purify the blood after a fever. 



Ginger is indigenous, but is now rarely to be 

 found in a wild state. * The white ginger is that 

 which is in general use. 



Malagueta Pepper is a small shrub which is 

 to be seen under the eaves of almost every cot- 

 tage. The pods are of a bright scarlet colour, 

 of about one inch in length, and one quarter in 

 breadth. It is a hardy plant ; for although it 

 droops under excessive drought, it is seldom 

 destroyed by it. Often are to be seen at the 

 same time, and upon the same bush, the blos- 

 soms, and the green and the ripe scarlet pods. 

 Wherever this shrub springs up care is taken of 

 it ; for the people of all ranks are from habit al- 

 most unable to eat their food without the mala- 

 gueta. The pods are bruised when about to be 

 used, and either form an ingredient in every 

 dish, or they are served up in all the sauces, t 



I 



* " Vieyra, in his letters, mentions a received tradition 

 that Emanuel ordered all the spice plants to be rooted up. 

 lest the Indian trade should be injured, and that dinger was 

 the only spice which escaped, because it was under ground. 

 He does not appear to have recollected the impossibility of 

 carrying such an order into effect upon a continent." — His- 

 tory of Brazil, vol. i., note to p. 32. Dr. Arruda alludes to 

 this order in his Discurso sobre a utilidade da instituipam dc 

 jardims, &c. And he adds that a £e\v cinnamon trees at 

 Pernambuco escaped as well as the ginger, p. 8. 



f " On one article, guinea-grains or malaguetta-pepper. 

 the duty has been doubled ; not with a view of increasing 



