296 
riPEKACE^:. 
[Piper. 
centre, obovate, glabrous. Stamens 3. Ovary sessile, ovoid ; stigmas 
3-4, lanceolate, spreading. Fruit the size of a small pea. fright , Ic. 
t. 1937. 
Mauritius, in shady humid forests about the Mare aux Vacouas, Bojer. Also 
Bourbon and Tropical Asia. P. laxum, Yahl, said to have been gathered in 
Mauritius by Commerson, differs from P. sylvestre by its longer leaves, equally 
rounded at the base and less crowded flowers. Poivrier sauvage. 
* P. Betle , Linn. ; Cas. DC. Prod. xvi. 359, a native of Tropical Asia, 
is cultivated and subspontaneous in Mauritius and the Seychelles. It 
is a glabrous scandent shrub rooting at the lower nodes, with alter- 
nate short-petioled broad-ovate membranous leaves with an unequally 
cordate base with 7 ribs radiating from the apex of the petiole, and 
two strong ones ascending from the midrib a little above it, dioicous 
spikes ^-|-foot long on short peduncles opposite the upper leaves, round 
sessile bracts attached by the centre, 2 stamens, 4-5 stigmas, and a 
globose sessile fruit the size of a small pea. We have a plant with 
closely similar leaves, not in flower, sent by M. Bouton, as a native 
of forests of the interior. Betel. 
* P, nigrum, Linn. ; Cas. DC. Prod. xvi. 363, the commonly cultivated 
Black Pepper, a native of Tropical Asia, is casually subspontaneous 
in Mauritius and the Seychelles. It has terete woody subscandeut 
stems rooting from the lower nodes, subcoriaceous alternate perioled 
acute roundish or broad ovate leaves | foot long rounded at the 
base, with 5 ribs from the base and 2 strong ones rising a little above 
it, peduncled dioicous or monoicous spikes arising singly opposite 
the upper leaves, a bract adnate to the rachis but free at the 
edge, 2 stamens, 3-5 stigmas, and a sessile fruit the size of a pea. 
Poivrier. 
P. radicans, YahlEnwn.i. 333, said to have been gathered in Mauritius by 
Commerson and reported by Bojer as growing on old trunks on the Pouce, is 
described as having trailing pilose stems as thick as a goosequill rooting at the lower 
nodes, leaves pilose on the petiole and ribs beneath, the lower ones cordate-ovate 
obscurely 5 -nerved, 2 inches long, the upper ones oblong acuminate and peduncled 
spikes 1^ in. long. 
2. PEPEROMIA, R. & P. 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Bract sessile or stalked. Stamens always 
only two, lateral ; anthers oblong, subsessile, 2-valved. Ovary sessile, 
often immersed at the base in the pitted rachis ; stigma in all the 
Mauritian species sessile, peltate. Fruit globose, not larger than a 
pin’s head. — Trailing more or less succulent herbs, the leaves in all 
our species opposite or whorled, the spikes terminal or leaf-opposed. 
Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. Species 350. 
Leaves opposite, membranous. 
Leaves triplinerved. 
Dwarf, with small leaves 1 
P. SERPYLLIFOUA. 
