268 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



The Pepper Family. 



(Piper ACE^.) 



Erect or climbing shrubs or fruticuls, often with swollen 

 joints. Leaves simple, alternate, opposite, or in w^horls, 

 often fleshy and longitudinally veined, sometimes with sti- 

 pules. Flowers small, usually in tail- or catkin-like spikes, 

 without calyx or corolla. Stamens 2. Pistils 3. Fruit small, 

 berry-like, 1 -seeded. 



The Pepper Family are almost entirely confined to tropi- 

 cal regions and consist of above 500 species, a great number 

 of them being found in America, those with succulent leaves 

 growing in dry rocky places, while others are epiphytal 

 climbers. They contain a pungent and aromatic property, of 

 which pepper may be considered the type. 



Modern botanists have classified them under a number of 

 diff'erent genera, but they are here noticed under the old 

 generic name of Piper. 



Pepper {Piper nigrum). A native of the East Indies, 

 where it is, as in most tropical countries, cultivated. It 

 is an epiphytal plant, climbing and clinging to trees like 

 ivy, having heart-shaped leaves about the size of ivy leaves, 

 producing flowers in spikes followed by berries like currants, 

 that are first green, but after being gathered and dried be- 

 come black ; such being the black pepper of commerce. 



White pepper is produced from the same berries divested 

 of their skin by washing and rubbing. The kinds cultivated 

 in Ceylon, Jamaica, and Trinidad have been grown at Kew, 

 and although all are of the same habit of growth, yet they 

 appear sufficiently distinct to be entitled to the rank of 

 species, which may probably be the reason of the different 

 qualities of pepper. It is a well known stimulant, and is 

 mentioned by Theophrastus as being known to the Greeks 

 and Romans; Pliny speaks of it as commanding a high 

 price. 



Long Pepper {Piper Boxhurghii). The flower spikes of 



