186 
which, indeed, they must be considered in any point of view to be in some 
measure connected. 
Geography. Exclusively confined to the hottest parts of the world. 
They are extremely common in tropical America and the Indian archipelago, 
but, according to Brown, are very rare in equinoctial Africa. Only 3 species 
have been found on the west coast ; several exist at the Cape of Good Hope. 
Congo, 464. 
Properties. Common Pepper, so well known for its pungent, stimulant, 
aromatic quality, represents the ordinary property of the order, which is not 
confined to the fruit only, but which pervades all the parts in a greater or less 
degree. The Cubebs of the shops, remarkable for their extraordinary power 
of allaying inflammation in the m'ethra and in the mucous membrane of the 
intestinal canal, are the dried fiiiit of Piper cubeba. Ainslie, 1. 98. The 
chemical principle called Piperin has been found in Black Pepper. Turner, 700. 
Piper anisatum has a strong smell of Anise, and a decoction of its berries is 
used to wash ulcers. Betel, an acrid stimulating substance, much used for 
chewing by the Malays, is the produce of Piper Betel, and Siriboa. Finally, 
P. inebrians possesses narcotic properties, of which the South Sea islanders 
avail themselves for preparing an intoxicating beverage. DC. 
GENERA. 
Piper, L. Ottonia, Spr. 
Peperomia, R. et P. Laurea, Gaud. 
Alliance II. SALICALES, 
Essential Character. — Flowers amentaceous. Fruit mostly many-seeded, when 1- 
seeded in globular heads. 
This and the next are the only aUiances in this group in which an 
arborescent stature is acquired. By this circumstance they are at once dis- 
tinguished. From Monimiales the want of an involucre in Siicales sufficiently 
separates that alhance. 
Order CXXXVI. SALICACE.E. The Willow Tribe. 
'AMENTACE.E, Juss. Geu. 407. (1789) in part; Lindl. Synops. § 229. (1829). — Salicine.®, 
L. C. Richard MSS.; Ach. Richard. Elem. de la Bot.ed, 4. 560. (1828). 
Essential Character. — Flowers unisexual, either monoecious or dioecious, amen- 
taceous. Stamens distinct or monadelphous ; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 1- or 2- 
celled ; ovules numerous, erect, at the base of the cell or adhering to the lower part of the 
sides; style 1 or 0 ; stigmas 2. Fruit coriaceous, 1- or 2-celled, 2-valved, many-seeded. 
Seeds either adhering to the lower part of the axis of each valve, or to the base of the cell, 
comose ; albumen 0 ; embryo erect ; radicle inferior. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, 
simple, with deliquescent primary veins, and frequently with glands ; stipules deciduous or 
persistent. 
Affinities. The hairy seeds, and polyspermous 2-valved fruit, dis- 
tinguish this order from Betulaceae, the only other with which it is likely to be 
confounded. It is usually combined with that order and Cupuliferae, under 
the name of Amentacese ; but it is more consonant with modem views of divi- 
sion to keep them all separate. 
Geography. Natives, generally, of the same localities as Betulaceae, but 
