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PEPPER. 
{Piper nigrum). 
The true pepper is a perennial creeping vine, indi- 
genous to Ceylon and Southern India. Both the 
black and white peppers of commerce are obtained 
from the dried fruit of the same plant. 
The plant is cultivated on a commercial scale in 
Java, Sumatra, Malabar, Ceylon and the West Indies. 
It was formerly cultivated on a large scale in Penang, 
but the industry has now practically died out. 
Cultivation. — The pepper vine requires a moist heat 
with shade, and thrives better on flat land than on 
the slopes of hills. The most suitable soil for 
pepper is one rich in humus ; with the aid of 
manures, it has been grown successfully on stiff 
yellow clay soils in Malaya. 
The vine is propagated from cuttings, selected from 
the tops of the best yielding vines, care being taken 
not to obtain cuttings from male vines only. The 
cuttings, which should be about one foot long, are 
planted in well-prepared nursery beds and buried 
six inches in the ground. The beds are shaded and 
watered carefully when necessary. After about a 
year, the cuttings should have become established 
and can then be transplanted. 
The plant requires support, either in the form of 
hardwood timber or light-foliaged trees. ^ Erythrina 
trees, when grown from cuttings about 3 feet long 
and 2 inches in diameter, are very suitable as sup- 
ports, the best kinds being E. lithosperma and E. 
stricta ; Morinda tinctoria is sometimes used for 
this purpose. These are planted 7 feet apart and 
lopped when necessary. 
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