PEPPER.  25 
years  ago.  The  pepper  alluded  to  must  have  been  the  produce 
of  Malabar,  the  nearest  part  of  India  to  Europe  that  produced 
the  article,  and  its  prime  cost  could  not  have  exceeded  the 
present  one,  or  about  2d.  per  pound.  It  would  most  probably 
have  come  to  Europe  by  crossing  the  Indian  and  Arabian  Ocean 
with  the  easterly  m  >nsoon,  sailing  up  the  Red  Sea,  crossing  the 
Desert,  dropping  d  wn  the  Nile,  and  making  its  way  along  the 
Mediterranean  by  two-thirds  of  its  whole  length.  This  voyage, 
which,  in  our  lime,  can  be  performed  in  a  month,  most  probably 
then  took  eighteen.  Transit  and  customs  duties  must  have  been 
paid  over  an  I  over  again,  and  there  must  have  been  plenty  <  f 
extortion.  All  this  will  explain  how  pepper  could  not  be  sold 
in  the  Roman  market  under  fifty-six  times  its  prime  c  :,st. 
Immediately  previous  to  the  discovery  of  the  route  to  India  by 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  we  find  that  the  price  of  pepper  in  the 
markets  of  Europe  had  fallen  to  6s.  a  pound,  or  3s.  4d.  less 
than  in  the  tinu  of  Pliny.  What  probably  contributed  to  this 
fall  was  the  superior  skill  in  navigation  of  the  now  converted 
Arabs,  and  the  extension  to  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Archi- 
pelago, which  abounded  in  pepper.  After  the  great  discovery 
of  Yasco  de  Gama,  the  price  of  pepper  fell  to  about  Is.  3d.  a 
pound,  a  fall  of  8s.  Id.  from  the  time  of  Pliny,  and  of  4s.  9d. 
from  that  of  the  Mahomedan  Arabs,  Turks,  and  Venetians. " 
The  pepper  plant  (Piper  nigrum,  L.,)  is  a  native  of  the  coast  of 
Malabar  and  the  southern  parts  of  India,  but  is  now  largely  cul- 
tivated in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  Sumatra,  Borneo,  Siam, 
and  other  places  within  the  tropics.  It  is  a  perennial  with  a 
climbing  shrubby  stem ;  the  berries  or  fruit  are  borne  upon  a 
spadix  that  is  arranged  in  dense  clusters  round  a  central  stalk  ; 
each  of  these  spadices  contains  from  twenty  to  fifty  berries. 
The  propagation  of  the  pepper  plant  is  chiefly  by  cuttings, 
though  they  will  grow  well  Jrom  seed,  but  of  course  the  plants 
take  1  nger  time  before  they  come  into  bearing,  which  is  a  great 
'  consideration  when  pecuniary  profit  is  the  aim.  The  richer  the 
soil,  the  better  the  plants  thrive.  In  forming  a  plantation,  the 
grower  will  take  his  cuttings  and  plant  them  perhaps  from  seven 
to  twelve  feet  apart.  The  climbing  habit  of  the  plants  renders 
it  necessaiy  to  provide  some  support  for  them  to  trail  upon. 
