XI 
CAPSICUMS 
363 
pepper (a spherical fruit, extremely hot), bull-nose, sweet 
mountain, monstrous Spanish, mammoth, red tomato, 
all not or hardly at all pungent, and consequently 
seldom if ever used as a spice. I have, however, seen a 
cold cayenne pepper made from this form, which had 
a very pleasant flavour, and might find a market as a 
condiment. 
It is probable that C. grossum is only a highly culti- 
vated form of annuum. It is, however, given in many 
books as a distinct species, as is the hot flavoured cherry 
capsicum, under the name of C. cerasiocarpum, which 
is generally now considered a variety of C. grossum. 
HISTORY 
There is no doubt that all the species of capsicum 
were originally natives of Central and South America 
and the West Indies, although the plants are now spread 
widely over the whole world except the colder regions. 
The earliest mention of this spice is found in a letter 
written by Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus, 
in his second voyage, to the Chapter of Seville in 1494 . 
He says that the natives of Hispaniola (Mexico) live 
on a root called “Age” (yam), which they season with 
a spice named “ Agi,” also eaten with fish and meat. 
This “ Agi ” signifies capsicums, and is still the common 
name in Spanish. It was later described by Fernandez 
{Ilistoria de las Indias, i. p. 275 ) in 1514 . 
A plant so easy of transport by seed was not long 
in reaching the East Indies, and thence was carried to 
Europe. Fuchs, in the Historia stirpium, fob 733 
( 1542 ), describes and figures it as Siliquastrum, or 
Calicut pepper, brought from India into Germany a. few 
years before. Clusius states that the plant was brought 
from Pernambuco by the Portuguese, and cultivated in 
Castile and Moravia abundantly in 1585 . Garcia da 
Orta, 1593 , writes: “This capsicum or Indian pepper 
(rather American pepper) is diligently cultivated all 
over Castile by gardeners, as also by women in hanging 
