242 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
on each vine. In the cultivated forms usually the 
spikes are hermaphrodite, having stamens alongside of 
the pistil. The presence and abundance of stamens in 
the spikes is of the utmost importance to the planter, 
for if the supply of pollen is not sufficient the spikes 
will be partly sterile, and the crop of pepper small. 
The fruit of the pepper is a nearly globular drupe, 
about J in. through when ripe, at first of a dull green 
colour and crowned at the top with the starlike stigmas, 
but eventually becoming red. When ripe it has a thin 
red skin, beneath which is a thin pulpy layer which 
encloses the round white seed. The fruits do not all 
ripen at the same time on the spike, and one can see them 
in a single spike in all stages of development, some 
apparently healthy having made no growth, others half^ 
grown. In good spikes, however, nearly all are approxi- 
mately of the same size, when nearly ripe. 
Good spikes are 4 in. long, and when ripe about in. 
through, and bearing about fifty peppercorns, but the 
size of the spike and number of fruits varies according 
to the variety cultivated. 
Exactly how the pollen is transferred to the stigmas 
is not certain. Barber points out that flushing takes 
place in India in the heavy driving rains of the 
monsoon, and suggests that rain and wind are necessary 
to dash the pollen from the male flowers to the female 
pistils. The flowers, however, are produced in the dryer 
parts of the year in the Straits Settlements, and it is 
more probable that the wind is the fertiliser. Ants, 
however, may often be seen running about all over the 
spikes, and may carry the pollen as well. 
The number of flowers in a spike is estimated by 
Barber as between 75 and 100. He estimates the 
number of pollen grains in a hermaphrodite spike as 
30,000 to 40,000, and as one pollen grain is enough to 
fertilise each stigma, there is an ample reserve of pollen 
for the hundred stigmas. Still, it is very common to 
see blanks in the fruit spike where for some reason the 
pistil has failed to be fertilised. 
