376 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cultivation, endeavouring to stir up the indolent natives. Pepper is one 

 of the best and roost suitable products that the natives can profitably 

 cultivate. It is well adapted to their village environments. It is only in 

 recent years that Europeans have taken up pepper culture on their 

 acquiring lowlands for other more important products. In India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, Borneo, and the Straits its cultivation has been carried out, with 

 highly remunerative results. Certain trees have been found more adapted 

 for the creeping vines of the pepper, and a regular planting done with 

 Eriodendron anfractuosum, White Cotton tree, Erythrina indica and 

 E. lithosperma and Jatropha Curcas. The common indigenous trees 

 about the villages will be found covered with the pepper vines. On many 

 of the tropical fruit trees the pepper vine grows luxuriantly, such as the 

 Mango, Jak, Breadfruit, Rose Apple, Mangosteen, and many others. In 

 Burma and the Straits, owing to the white ants, teak posts are used for 

 supports for the pepper vines, but as with other creeping plants it is 

 found that the vines prefer live supports to grow upon. 



In Java the Dutch Government cultivate pepper on a regular system, 

 trained over trellis-work or posts, not unlike the vine in France, a 

 plantation having alternate rows of pepper creepers and coffee trees. 

 The Eriodendron is planted wherever desirable. The propagation of 

 pepper is simple, the method being by cuttings. Seedlings are slow in 

 forming a plant. 



The world's production of Pepper is about eighty millions of pounds : 

 India, twenty ; Java, twenty ; Straits, ten ; Borneo, four ; Sumatra, fifteen ; 

 Siam, six ; Ceylon, one. 



The gathering and preparation o pepper for the market is simple, 

 with a minimum of cost. The whiteness of the seed capsules is ensured 

 by bleaching with the fumes of sulphur. 



In 1906 the value of the exports of black, long and white pepper from 

 Singapore was estimated at 8 \ million dollars, and from Penang at nearly 

 2 million dollars. 



Nutmeg. 



The nutmeg (fig. 131) forms a very handsome evergreen tree, preferring 

 good soil in the sheltered river valleys. It is a native of the Eastern 

 Moluccas, and is cultivated in Java, Malaya Peninsula, Straits Settle- 

 ments, and Ceylon. In recent years its cultivation has increased ; the 

 trees come into bearing in eight or ten years. The mace is a beautiful 

 network inside the fruit-shell, covering over the nutmegs. Particular 

 care is necessary in drying the nutmegs and mace, when careful packing 

 is done for transport. 



The nutmeg produces staminate and pistillate flowers on different 

 trees, and it is therefore necessary to have flowering trees of both sexes in 

 every plantation. 



Java is the largest exporter of nutmegs, reaching as much as one 

 million pounds in a season, with half a million pounds of mace. In 

 1906 the shipments of nutmegs and mace from Singapore were valued at 

 176,000 dollars, and from Grenada at £20,620. 



