112 PLim'S NATURAL HISTOET. [Book XIL 
although, indeed, it has been alleged by some authors that they 
only grow on the slopes of Caucasus which lie exposed to the 
sun. The seeds, however, diiFer from those of the juniper, in 
being enclosed in small pods similar to those which we see in 
the kidney-bean. These pods are picked before they open, 
and when dried in the sun, make what we call long pepper." 
But if allowed to ripen, they will open gradually, and when 
arrived at maturity, discover the white pepper ; if left ex- 
posed to the heat of the sun, this becomes wrinkled, and changes 
its colour. Even these productions, however, are subject to 
their own peculiar infirmities, and are apt to become blasted 
by the inclemency of the weather ; in which case the seeds 
are found to be rotten, and mere husks. These abortive seeds are 
known by the name of bregma," a word which in the Indian 
language signifies dead.'' Of all the various kinds of pepper, 
this is the most pungent, as well as the very lightest, and is 
remarkable for the extreme paleness of its colour. That which 
is black is of a more agreeable flavour ; but the white pepper 
is of a milder quality than either. 
The root of this tree is not, as many persons have imagined, 
the same as the substance known as zimpiberi, or, as some call 
it, zingiberi, or ginger, although it is very like it in taste.' 
.For ginger, in fact, grows in Arabia and in Troglodytica, in 
various cultivated spots, being a small plant with a white 
root. This plant is apt to decay very speedilj^, although it is 
of intense pungency; the price at which it sells is six denarii, 
per pound. Long pepper is very easily adulterated with 
Alexandrian mustard ; its price is fifteen denarii per pound, 
while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four. It is 
quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into 
fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is 
sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that 
has attracted our notice ; whereas, pepper has nothing in it 
that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its 
only desirable quality being a certain pungency ; and yet it is 
for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was 
the first to make trial of it as an article of food ? and who, I 
wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself 
50 Fee remarks, that this is not a correct description of ginger, the Amo- 
mum zingiber of Linnaeus. Dioscorides was one of those who thought 
that ginger was the root of tlie pepper- tree. 
