OUR COMMON SPICES. 
Spices have been known from the remotest antiquity. 
Among the ancients tlfey were used in seasoning food, 
flavoring wines, perfuming their beds and wearing- 
apparel, and in enbalming the dead ; it was also cus¬ 
tomary to burn spices as an honorary mark at the burial 
of kings. The Bible not only mentions these different 
methods of use, but also informs us that spices were 
brought into Egypt from Arabia by the Ishmaelites. 
The most common spice in use at the present time is 
Pepper—both black and Cayenne—which is a native of 
the East Indies, though now cultivated in other warm 
countries, especially in tropical America. It is a 
climbing shrub, and the fruit which grows in spikes is 
about the size of a Pea, and when ripe is of a bright red 
color. In cultivation the plants are supported by poles, 
or small trees set out for the purpose. It is propagated 
by cuttings, and begins to bear in three or four years 
from time of planting, when it yields two crops 
annually for twelve years. The berries are gathered 
when first beginning to turn, for if allowed to become 
fully ripe, they are not only less pungent, but are apt 
to drop off. When gathered they are spread on mats 
and separated from the spikes by rubbing between the 
hands or treading with the feet, after which they are 
cleaned by winnowing. The Pepper we use consists of 
the berries thus dried, which afterward become wrinkled 
and black. White Pepper is the seed minus the skin 
and fleshy part of the fruit. 
The Long Pepper sold in drug-stores, is obtained 
from Piper longum. The fruit is gathered when 
unripe and dried in the sun. They are used in 
cooking, pickling and in medicine. The use of Pepper 
in small doses is pleasant and stimulating, but taken 
in large quantities will produce great pain and irri¬ 
tation, yet the amount used by natives of warm 
climates, greatly surpasses anything of the kind 
among Europeans. It is usually though, the red or 
Cayenne Pepper that is so freely used. 
Cayenne Pepper is the product of Capsicum, a genus 
of the natural order Solanacece, all natives of America, 
and Asia. The fruit which varies in form, being some¬ 
times round, oval or heart shaped ; is from a one-half 
to four inches in length, and of a bright scarlet or else 
yellow color. It is very stimulating and pungent, and 
it is when ground that it is known as Cayenne Pepper ; 
the Mexican name of the fruit is Chillies, and it is 
much used in sauces and pickles, indeed, the Mexicans 
season almost every kind of meat and vegetable with 
Chillies. One often sees, when traveling in Mexico, the 
native women sitting or kneeling before a flat stone, on 
which they are rolling Chillies with a stone roller. We 
wonder that it is not more used in this country, for it 
adds a fine flavor to food, and is said to aid digestion. 
It is highly prized as a medicine, especially as a gargle 
in some of those diseases to which the thfoat is so 
often subject. To prepare it for a gargle we are 
told to infuse it in water, with candy sugar and vinegar. 
Pepper was well-known in ancient times. . Hippo¬ 
crates used it as a medicine, and Pliny expresses his 
great surprise that it should have come into general use 
considering its want of flavor. During the middle 
ages it was one of the most costly spices, and in the 
thirteenth century a few pounds of it were considered 
a costly present. The amount now used is enormous. 
Then there is Allspice, or as it is sometimes called 
Jamaica Pepper, which is the dried fruit of the Pimenta 
vulgaris, a small West India tree, from twenty to 
thirty feet in height. It is a beautiful tree, with a 
straight trunk and branching head, and during the 
month of July is loaded with white blossoms, which, 
emit a rich aromatic fragrance ; the leaves and bark 
possess the same delightful smell, but the fruit, when 
ripe, loses almost entirely its valuable odor, so the 
berries are gathered as soon as they reach their full 
size—about that of Pepper-corns—and dried in the sun, 
great care being taken in turning and winnowing them 
to prevent injurious effects from moisture. When 
dried they are packed in bags for the market. The- 
name of Allspice comes from a fancied resemblance in 
taste to a mixture of Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Cloves. 
Cinnamon was one of the spices used in making the 
oil for the annotating of the tabernacle, and is men¬ 
tioned several times in the Bible. It is the aromatic 
bark of certain kinds of cinnamomum; the finest is said 
to be obtained from the cinnamomum zeylanicuui, a na¬ 
tive of Ceylon, and introduced into the West Indies in 
1782. It is a tree about thirty feet high, the bark of 
which is grayish-brown outside, and of a yellow-red in¬ 
side ; the leaves taste like cloves, and the flowers are 
quite pretty, being of a silky gray t color with a yellow 
center, while the fruit, of a brown color when ripe, re¬ 
sembles the acorn in shape. There are two seasons of 
gathering it in Ceylon, April and November. The 
branches of from three to five years growth are then 
cut down, the epidermis scraped away, the bark care¬ 
fully peeled off and laid in the sun to dry. As the 
slices dry they curl np into quills, the smaller of which, 
are inserted in the larger, and the whole tied up into 
bundles of about eighty pounds each. 
Great care is taken in arranging them according to 
quality, and in ordqr to test it, those putting it up are 
obliged to taste and chew it, though it shortly produces 
painful effects on mouth and tongue. The thinnest 
slices are delightfully fragrant and it is much used in 
confectionery and medicine. 
Another much used spice is the Clove, the name of 
which is derived from the French clou, a nail, from its 
resemblance to a little nail. Cloves are the flower-buds 
of the Clove-tree, which though now cultivated in the 
West Indies, originally came from the Moluccas. The 
tree is from fifteen to forty feet in height, and the 
leaves, flowers and bark, all have the same spicy odor. 
The ripe fruit is like the Olive in shape, though not 
quite so large, and is of a dark red color, it is some¬ 
times seen in commerce in a dried state, under the 
curious name of Mother Cloves. It is the flower-buds 
though, that are mainly used, which are dried in the 
sun or by a fire. Oil of Cloves is much used in scenting 
soap and in perfumery. 
The spice knoVn as Mace is the aril of the Nutmeg, 
t 
