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lxxiii. piperacea:. 
Order LXXIII. PIPERACE.E. 
Herbs or shrubs, often aromatic. Leaves alternate opposite or whorled, 
Avith or without stipules, blowers most minute, usually crowded on very 
slender catkins, amongst minute, angular, flat-topped scales.- — Perianth 0. 
Stamens 2 or more ; filaments very short. Ovary 1-celled ; style 0 or very 
short, stigma entire or 2-6-lobed, capitate or plumose ; ovule 1, erect. Berry 
1-seeded. Seed with fleshy or horny albumen and minute embryo. 
A considerable tropical and subtropical Order. 
Small berb. Leaves succulent. Stigma deciduous 1. Peperomia. 
Shrub, aromatic. Leaves membranous. Stigmas 2-5 2. Piper. 
1. PEPEROMIA, Ruiz and Pavon. 
Succulent herbs. Leaves opposite alternate or whorled. Flowers her- 
maphrodite. — Bracts peltate. Stamens 2. Ovary sessile; stigma sessile, 
deciduous, pencilled. Berry sessile. 
A large genus, found in all tropical parts of the world. 
1. P. Urvilleana, A. Rich.; — FI. N. Z. i. 228. A small, glabrous or 
puberulous, succulent herb, 4-10 in. high, creeping, branched. Leaves alter- 
nate, shortly petioled, -j— 1 in. long, broadly obovate or elliptic-oblong, ob- 
tuse, 3-nerved at the base. Catkin peduncled, axillary, solitary, erect, 1-1J 
in. long. 
Northern Island: common in damp woods, on mossy trees, rocks, etc., Ranks and 
So/ander, etc. Kermadec Islands, M‘Gillivray. Also a Norfolk Island plant, and closely 
allied to some Pacific Island and Australian species. 
2. PIPER, Linn. 
Small trees, or climbing or erect shrubs. Leaves alternate, petioled ; stipules 
adnate or deciduous. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual. — Bracts nearly 
sessile. Stamens 2. Ovary sessile, ovoid ; stigmas 2-5. 
A very large tropical genus, to which the Black and Betle Peppers belong, and the Kava 
of the South Sea Islands. 
1. P. excelsum. Ford.; — FI. N. Z. i. 228. A large bush or small 
tree, often 20 ft. high, quite glabrous, very aromatic. Stem flexuose, jointed. 
Leaves 3-5 in. long, broadly ovate-cordate, acuminate, 5-7-nerved at the 
base ; petioles 1-2 in. long ; winged by the adnate stipules at their bases. 
Catkins solitary or 2 together, axillary, erect, strict, slender, 1-4 in. long. 
Berries yellow. 
Northern and Middle Islands : as far south as Canterbury, Batiks and Solan der, etc. 
Kermadec Islands, M‘ Gillivray. Also found in Norfolk Island and Lord Howe’s Island. 
The plant which I referred to P. macrophyUum, in a short account of the vegetation of the 
Kermadec group (Linn. Journ. i. 127), is, I think, only a large state of this. The leaves 
are eaten, but seeds rejected. Leaves used as Tea, etc., to cure toothache. 
