i 893 



€3)e treasury of ^otaitg. 



[pipe 



rural purposes. It is also extremely valu- 

 able on account of the great quantity of 

 Turpentine it yields ; and since the blockade 

 of the ports of the Southern States of Ame- 

 rica, it has supplied the bulk of the tur- 

 pentine used in this country. 



Pinus Pinea, the Stone Pine, is a native 

 of Southern Europe and the Levant. This 

 is one of the species of which the seeds 

 are eaten. They are called Pignons by the 

 French, and Pinocchi by the Italians, and 

 are commonly eaten for dessert, or made 

 into sweetmeats. Several other species 

 also yield eatable seeds : such as P. Sabi- 

 mana, the seeds of which are collected in 

 immense quantities by the Californian and 

 Oregon Indians as an article of winterfood; 



Pinus Pinea. 



P. Gerardiana, the Xeosa Pine of the Hima- 

 layas, affording the Xeosa or Chilgoza seeds 

 sold as food in the bazaars of Upper India ; 

 and P. Cembra, the Siberian Cedar, whose 

 seeds are largely consumed by the Rus- 

 sians, as we eat nuts. The Canary Island 

 Pine is shown at Plate lie. [A. S.j 



PIGWEED. Lechea. 



PIXXTER-FLOWER. An American 

 name for Azalea nudiflora. 



PIOXAN'DRA. A group of about twenty 

 tropical American Solanacece, collected to- 

 gether by Mr. Miers ; but in the latest mo- 

 nograph of that order, the majority of 

 them are combined with the older genus 

 Cyphomandra, and the remainder referred 

 to Solarium. They are small trees or tree- 

 like shrubs, with dichotomous branches, 

 usually entire and mostly cordate leaves, 

 borne in pairs, one of each pair always 

 smaller than its feilow, and exti-a-axillary 

 racemes, with small campanuiate flowers 

 arranged all on one side. [A. SJ 



PIOSXEv (Fr.) Pceonia officinalis. 



PIPE-DE-TABAC. (Fr.) AristolocMa 

 Sipho. 



PIPE, INDIAN'. An American name for 

 Monotropa. 



PIPE-TREE. Syringa. 



PIPERACEiE. (Pepperworts.) A natural 



order of monochlamydeous dicotyledons 

 belonging to Lindley's piperal alliance of 

 hypogynous Exogens. They are shrubs or 

 herbs, with articulated stems, opposite 

 verticillate stipulate or exstipulate leaves, 

 sometimes alternate by abortion ; and her- 

 maphrodite spiked or racemose flowers 

 without perianth, supported on a bract : 

 stamens from two to six ; anthers with or 

 without a fleshy connective ; ovary soli- 

 tary free, one-celled, with a solitary erect 

 ovule, orthotropal. Fruit somewhat fleshy, 

 indehiscent ; seed erect, with the embryo 

 in a fleshy vitellus. They are natives of 

 the hottest quarters of theglobe, and occur 

 commonly in South America and India. 

 The wood is often arranged in wedges, 

 with medullary rays, but without concen- 

 tric zones. They have pungent, acrid, and 

 aromatic properties : most of them contain 

 an acrid resin, and a crystalline principle 

 called piperin, in which their active quali- 

 ties reside ; some are narcotic and astrin- 

 gent. The substance called matico, or ma- 

 tica, consists of the leaves and unripe 

 fruit of Artanthe elongata. There are about 

 a score of genera, and upwards of 600 spe- 

 cies— Piper, Artanthe, and Peperomia afford- 

 ing the best-known examples. [J. H. B.] 



PIPER. This name was employed by the 

 Romans to designate the Pepper-plants, 

 and was derived by them from the Greek 

 word peperi. The Greeks, in their turn, 

 must have derived it from the Hindoos. 

 Botanically, it is applied to the typical 

 genus of Piperacece, the species of which 

 are for the most part climbing shrubs, 

 with alternate stalked leaves ; stipules 

 adherent to the leafstalk or opposite and 

 deciduous; spikes solitary stalked, pendu- 

 lous, opposite the leaves, w T ith dioecious 

 or perfect flowers, protected by oblong de- 

 current bracts. The species are indigenous 

 in India, the islands of the Indian Ocean, 

 the Sandwich Islands, &c, and some of 

 them are abundantly cultivated in the 

 tropical countries of the New as well as 

 of the Old World. 



P. nigrum yields the Pepper of com- 

 merce, a condiment that has been held in 

 high esteem from the earliest times. It is 

 frequently mentioned by Roman writers of 

 the Augustan age, and it is related that in 

 the fifth century Attila demanded, among 

 other things, .3,000 lbs. of pepper in ransom 

 for the city of Rome. Pepper is cultivated 

 in the East and West Indies, Sumatra, 

 Java, &c, but that which comes from 

 Malabar is held in the highest esteem. 

 The pepper-vine will, if left to itself, attain 

 a height of twenty or more feet, but in 

 cultivation it is found more convenient 

 not to allow it to exceed the height of 

 twelve feet. The plants are placed at the 

 base of trees that have rough or prickly 

 bark, in order that they may the more 

 readily attach themselves to the trunk. 

 In three years they produce their spikes 

 of fruits, and continue to do so for some 

 seven or eight years, after which time they 

 become less productive. The fruit when 

 ripe is of a red colour ; it is gathered before 



