366 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
manures of an animal origin is very much more rapid, 
and produces an excess of ammonia. Horse -dung 
cannot be safely used for manuring plants in the tropics 
till it has been rotted for several years, and even then 
well mixed with the soil in small quantities. 
Both the long capsicum, C. frutescens, and the 
bird’s-eye chili, C. minimum, will grow well in light 
open soils as described above, but the bird’s-eye chili has 
an undoubted predilection for limestone rocks. In the 
Malay peninsula it has thoroughly established itself on 
the limestone cliffs and talus, wherever the natives have 
brought the fruits ; it spreads all over these places often 
in great abundance, the seeds being dispersed by birds. 
In the Kew Bulletin (1892, p. 88; 1898, p. 171), Sir 
John Kirk, writing on the agricultural resources of 
Zanzibar, says : “ The small red peppers or chilies are 
largely grown in the more dry and rocky part of the 
island, where the upheaved coral presents a honey- 
combed surface that favours the accumulation of rich 
soil in crevices.” 
It has also established itself on the coral rocks of 
Christmas Island. 
The plants are usually grown as annuals and re- 
planted each year, but they can be grown continuously 
for two or three years, as a Ceylon planter in Central 
Africa wrote to the Tropical Agriculturist : — 
I have 100 odd acres planted between the lines of coffee as 
a catch crop. They are now three years old, and lots are 
beginning to die off after continuous cropping for two years. 
After the first crop I cut them down and dug them in as 
manure to the coffee. They grew up again quickly, and I have 
now nearly finished a second crop. I intend to uproot them 
and dig them altogether in the course of a few months more, as 
the coffee has now closed in upon them, and they have served 
me well, having more than paid for the coffee clearing. I could 
not pick half the crop for want of labour, but I should say that 
each tree gave me more than 1 lb. of dry chilies, and the price 
I got was from 37s. 6d. to 56s. 6d. per cwt. 
The variety I planted was the common kind, the bird’s-eye 
chili used by the Ceylon coolie. This kind of good quality. 
