430 
LXXXIII. PIPERACE^E 
2. PIPER. The Latin name for Pepper; — Tropical and sub- 
tropical regions. 
Piper brachystachyum, Wall. ; FI. Br. Ind. v. 87. A rambling 
shrub : stems often very long, climbing on trees or rocks, pube- 
scent or hairy, swollen and rooting at the joints ; flowering shoots 
glabrous, free, spreading, 1-3 ft. or more. Leaves of the climbing 
stem orbicular, 1-2 in., pointed, pale on the lower surface ; those of 
the free shoots ovate, 2-5 X 1-2 in., long-pointed, narrowed to the 
base. Flowers purple, 1-sexual, the male and female on different 
plants. Male spikes 2-3 in., slender, drooping : stamens 2. 
Female spikes ovoid, J in. long ; stigmas 3, sessile, spreading over 
the 1 -celled, 1-ovuled ovary. Fruiting spike globose ; berries 
in. diam., 1 -seeded, crowded. 
Valley below Chota Simla, 4500 ft. ; May. — Subtropical Himalaya, 2000- 
5000 ft. — Nilghiris. 
3. PEPEROMIA. From the Greek peperi, pepper, and 
homoios, similar. — Tropical regions. 
Peperomia reflexa, A. Dielr. ; FI. Br. Ind. v. 99. A succulent, 
pubescent herb, 3-10 in. ; branches tufted, rooting at the joints, 
creeping on trees or rocks. Leaves whorled in fours, nearly 
sessile, broadly ovate, | in. Spikes stalked, erect, |-1 in. Flowers 
green, 2-sexual, half sunk in the rachis of the spike. Perianth 
none. Stamens 2. Stigma sessile, minutely 2-lobed. Berries 
indehiscent, one-seeded. (Fig. 137.) 
Simla, below Annandale ; November. — Subtropical Himalaya, 4000-6000 ft. 
— Tropical Asia, Africa, and America. 
LXXXIV. LAURACE^E 
Evergreen trees or shrubs, more or less aromatic. Leaf-buds 
large, enveloped in imbricate scales. Leaves entire ; stipules 
none. Flowers small, 1- or 2-sexual, in panicles or densely 
clustered in small umbels. Perianth regular, 4-6-parted ; seg- 
ments in 2 series. Stamens 6-13, usually in 2 series, the inner 
series often partly consisting of staminodes ; anthers 4-celled, the 
cells opening by upturned, often deciduous lids. Ovary free, sessile, 
1-celled, 1-ovuled ; style linear, stigma terminal, dilated and some- 
times lobed. Drupe 1 -seeded, seated on or clasped by the per- 
sistent perianth-segments or their bases. — From the Latin Laurus, 
the classical name of L. nobilis, a European and Oriental species.— 
Nearly all tropical and subtropical regions ; rare in temperate 
regions. 
