PEP 
PEPERI'AH, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar: 54. 
miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Hajypour. 
PEP'IN LE GRO'S, Pepin le bref, &c. fee the article 
France, vo). vii. p. 651—6. 
PEP'IN LA'KE, an expanfion of the river Miffiflippi. 
Lat. 42. 20. N. Ion. 92. 45. W. 
PEP'LION, f . in botany. See Euphorbia. 
PEP'LIS, [a name borrowed from Diofcorides, whofe 
■SWAneverthelefs, is evidently the Linnaean Euphor¬ 
bia peplis, and effentially different in characters and qua¬ 
lities from the genus of which we are about to treat.] 
Water Purslane ; in botany, a genus of the clafs hex- 
andria, order monogynia, natural order of calycanthemae, 
(falicariae, JuJj.) Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium 
one-leafed, bell-fhaped, permanent, very large, with the 
mouth twelve-cleft; toothlets alternate, reflex. Corolla: 
petals fix, ovate, very fraall, inferted into the throat of 
the calyx. Stamina: filaments fix, awl-fhaped, fhort; 
antherse roundifli. Piftillum: germ oval ; ftyle very 
fhort; fligma orbiculate. Pericarpium : capfule fuperior, 
cordate, two-celled; partition oppofite. Seeds very 
many, three-fided, very fmall. In many florets on the 
fame plant the corolla is entirely wanting. In P. tetran- 
dra the parts of fructification are lefs by one-third.— Effen- 
tial Character. Calyx bell-fhaped, with a twelve-cleft 
mouth ; petals fix, inferted into the calyx, (or none.) 
capfule two-celled. There are three fpecies. 
1. Peplis portula, or common water-purflane : flowers 
apetalous. This is an annual creeping plant. Stems 
numerous, branched, dichotomous, from half a foot 
or a fpan to a foot in length, fmooth, angular, joint¬ 
ed, of a reddifh colour. Leaves oppofite, obovate, orbi¬ 
culate or fpatulate, tapering into the petiole, fmooth, 
quite entire. Flowers very final], folitary, oppofite, 
feflile ; corolla and filaments pinky red ; petals deciduous, 
regularly fix, but more frequently one, two, or three, 
and fometimes none; calyx greenifh white, fmooth, an- 
gular-plaited, ftriated ; antherae dark coloured; fligma 
white. Capfule fmall, globular, membranaceous, very 
thin, knobbed on account of the protuberant feeds, 
valvelefs; partition membranaceous, correfponding with 
the external groove of the capfule; receptacle flefhy, round- 
ifh, compreffed a little, fattened to the partition on both 
tides. Seeds about thirty in each cell, obovate acumi¬ 
nate, convex on one fide, flat on the other, pale. Na¬ 
tive of many parts of Europe, in bogs, marfhes, ditches, 
and efpecially where water has ftagnated in winter and 
becomes dry in fummer. It flowers from July to Septem¬ 
ber ; and is reprefented on the annexed Plate. 
2. Peplis tetrandra: flowers one-petalled,four-ftamened. 
Calyx bell-fhaped, with the border eight-cleft; corolla 
tubular, with the border four-parted; ftamens four; 
germ growing to the tube of the calyx ; ftigmas two, 
capfule inferior, two-celled, crowned. According to 
Jufiieu, the corolla is monopetalous, four-ftamened ; the 
germ inferior, the fligma double ; the capfule two-celled, 
two-valved, many-feeded ; with a ftipule between the 
leaves: it is therefore more nearly allied to the Rubiaceae, 
and particularly to Oldenlandia or Gomozia; but it is 
diftinguiflied from them by its eight-toothed calyx. In 
the opinion of Swartz, the corolla, fruit, number, and 
habit, do not admit of its ranging with Peplis. It feeras 
rather to be a .Hedyotis, and differs little in appearance 
from H. pumlia. It is an annual plant, native of the 
Weft Indies, in dry fhady places at the foot of mountains 
or trees. Willdenow alfo fays the P. tetrandra of Linnaeus 
is a Hedyotis, of which indeed it has all the appearance. 
He adds, in its ftead, the following new fpecies. 
3. Peplis lndica: flowers fpiked, brafteated ; leaves 
feflile. Native of the Eaft Indies. Stem afeending, fquare, 
fmooth, fix inches or more in height. Leaves oppofite, 
oblong-obovate, abrupt, entire, veiny, fmooth. Flow¬ 
ers feffile, oppofite, each accompanied by a lanceolate 
brafte, twice its own length; calyx with only eight teeth ; 
petals wanting; ftamens four. See Euphorbia. 
PEP 577 
PEPLOU'D, a town of Hindooftan, in the Candeifh 
country : eighty miles fouth of Indore, and thirty north- 
eaft of Burhampour. Lat. 21. 42. N. Ion. 76. 45. E. 
. PE'PLUS, /. A long robe worn by the women in an¬ 
cient times, reaching down to the feet, without fleeves 
and fo very fine, that the (liape of the body might be feen 
through it. The Athenians ufed much ceremony in ma¬ 
king the peplus, and drefling the ftatue of Minerva with 
it. See the article Panathen^ea, vol. xviii. p. 313. 
PE'PO, f . in botany. See Cucurbita and Mo’mor- 
DICA. 
PEPONG', or Pepung. See Pepung. 
PEP'PER, /. [peppoji, Sax. piper , Lat .poivre, Fr.] An 
aromatic pungent fpice.—We have three kinds of pepper; 
the black, the white, and the long, which are three dif¬ 
ferent fruits produced by three diftinft plants. Black 
pepper is a dried fruit of the fizeof a vetch, and roundish, 
but rather of a deep brown than a black colour: with 
this we are fupplied from Java, Malabar, and Sumatra; 
and the plant has the fame heat and fiery tafte that we 
find in the pepper. Whit epepper is commonly factitious 
and prepared from the black by taking off the outer bark- 
but there is a rarer fort, which is a genuine fruit natu¬ 
rally white : long pepper is a fruit gathered while unripe 
and dried, of an inch or an inch and a half in length 
and of the thicknefs of a large goofe-quill. Hill.— See the 
article Piper. 
Scatter o’er the blooms the pungent duft 
Of pepper, fatal to the froity tribe. Thomfon's Spring. 
To PE'PPER, v. a. To fprinkle with pepper, or with 
the appearance of it: 
Note the lining of the royall robe, 
Its powder’d ermine, pepper'd too with flings. 
That, like a nettle, make the wearer rub. Davies. 
Of praife a mere glutton, he fwallow’d what came; 
And the puff of a dunce he miftook it for fame; 
Till, his relifti grown callous almoft to difeafe, 
Who pepper'd the higheft was fureft to pleafe. Goldfmith. 
To beat; to mangle with ftiot or blows.—I have peppered 
two of them; two I have paid, two rogues in buckram 
fuits. S/takefpeare's Hen. IV. 
Thou art hurt.—I am pepper'd ; 
I was i’ the midft of all, and bang’d of all hands; 
They made an anvil of my head ; it rings yet; 
Never fo threlh’d : do you call this fame ? Beaum. and FI. 
PEP'PER (Guinea). See Capsicum. 
-- (Jamaica). See Myrtus. 
PEP'PER-BA'Y, a bay on the weft coaft of the iflantl 
of Java: thirty miles fbuth-fouth-weft of Bantam. Lit. 
6 . 24. S. Ion. 105. 40. E. 
PEP'PER-BOX, J. A box for holding pepper. — I 
wfill not take the leacher; he cannot creep into a half¬ 
penny purfe nor into a pepper-box. Shakefpeare. 
. PEP'PER-CORN, /. A grain of pepper; any thing of 
inconfiderable value.—Our performances, though dues, 
are like thofe pepper-corns which freeholders pay their 
landord to acknowledge that they hold all from him. 
Boyle. 
Folks from mud-wall’d tenement 
Bring landlords pepper-corn for rent. Prior. 
PEP'PER-GIN'GERBREAD, J\ What is now called 
f pice-gingerbread ; and in the north pepper-cake: 
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 
A good mouth-filling oath 5 and leave in footh, 
And fuch proteft of pepper-gingerbread. 
To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens. Shakefpeare. 
PEP'PER-GR ASS. See Pilularia. 
PEP'PER-WORT. See Lepidium. 
PEP'PERBERG, a town of the ifland of Java, on the 
fouth coaft : feventy-five miles fouth of Batavia. 
PEP'PER. 
