248 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
the spikes. The spikes are small, 1 to 2 in. long, and 
densely crowded with fruit. The flowers are less than 
their diameter apart. The stamens are abundant, and the 
plant is very fruitful and flushes early. Intermediate 
forms between this and the other two forms occur. 
Mr. C. P. Kaunan Nair (in Tropical Agriculturist^ 
June 1906, p. 562) describes four varieties cultivated in 
Malabar. Sadharana valli, a common form and a 
good cropper. 
Kallivalli already described, the best kind. Utharam 
valli, easier to propagate than either of the preceding. 
It has thicker shoots, and broader leaves. The pepper- 
corns larger and lighter, and the yield small. 
Koltavalli, so called because the stems interlace 
like a basket. It grows easily without care, but the 
yield is poor. 
Short -leaved pepper has light -coloured, uniform, 
short, broad, flat, oval leaves, 4 in. long, 2^ in. wide, 
with indistinct veins, the vines tending to high growth 
with a very large number of small spikes, all exactly 
of the same stage of maturity. The branches stick 
out and branch dichotomously. The whole vine has a 
thinly-clad appearance. The spikes are 2 to 3 in. long, 
very numerous, apparently without stamens. 
The plant cultivated in the Malay Peninsula and 
Borneo resembles the short -leaved pepper, as far as 
description goes, in many respects. It is not a tall 
pepper, and is only cultivated up to about 12 ft. height. 
The leaves are oval, or lanceolate, dark green with 
prominent nerves ; the spikes numerous and short, not 
branched ; the flowers about twice their length apart, 
fully hermaphrodite ; the stamens in pairs or solitary 
on each side of the pistil ; the fruit spikes full, the 
peppercorns not large. 
Some other forms are mentioned by Barber as occur- 
ring on the Madras estates, and two jungle peppers have 
found their way into the cultivated area. The higherry, 
unisexual vines, as in most wild forms ; the females with 
small, dark green, flat, narrow, hard leaves, and hairy 
