THE BLACK PEPPER.

749

Fig. 158.

mm

■w7%

fruit forms a very considerable article of food in Ceylon.(For a full description of these plants, by Dr. Hooker, seeBotan. Magaz. vol. ii. N. S.)

The Cannabis sativa, or Hemp plant, so well known forthe tenacity of its fibres, possesses narcotic properties, andyields an intoxicating drug. A glandular secretion of thisplant serves, among Asiatics, for both wine and opium. Dr.Royle (Botany of the Himalayan Mount, p. 3:54) suggests itmay be the Nepenthes (lojirevfc'i) of Homer ( Odyssce , iv.)

^onnabis sativa.

Order 26. Pipeiu'ceac, Kunth . —The Pepper Tribe.

Character. — Flowers naked, hermaphrodite, with a bract on the outside.'"Wens definite or indefinite, arranged on one side, or all round the ovary; to whichadhere more or less ; anthers one or two-celled, with or without a fleshy con-® c tive; pollen smooth. Ovary superior, simple, one-celled, containing a single erectd ?• stigma sessile, simple, rather oblique. Fruit superior, somewhat fleshy, in-j 'scent,one-celled, one-seeded. Seed erect, with the embryo lying in a fleshy sac,f ®ced at that end of the seed which is opposite the hilum, on the outside of the al-^Oien, Shrubs or herbaceous plants. Leaves opposite, verticillate, or alternate, in^"sequence of the abortion of one of the pair of leaves, without stipules. Flowers ® l| ally sessile, sometimes pedicellate, in spikes which are either terminal or axillary ;

*V TJ 0p,,Osite t * le l eaves (Findley).

■jJERTies.—F ruits remarkable for their hot taste, and acrid and stimulant properties,hese qualities they owe to the presence of an acrid oil and resin.

Pi'per nigrum , Linn., L. E. D.— The Black Pepper.

Sex. Syst. Diandria, Trigynia.

(Baccae, L. Dried unripe Berries, E. Semina, V.)

—The ancient Greeks were acquainted with pepper (a-eVept);fjQini knowledge of which must have been derived, directly or indirectly,s ev tile Hindoos. Hippocrates {De morb. mul. &c.) employed it inUse er ^ diseases. Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. xii. cap. 14, ed. Yalp.) notices itsc Qtn ^ a con diment, and expresses his astonishment that it should havee ^to general use, since it has neither flavour nor appearance to

nimend it.

*L°TANY. Gen. Char. — Spadix covered with flowers on all sides.

^ hermaphrodite, rarely dioecious, each supported by a scale.hUn l n<1 * wo or m ore. Ovarium with one, solitary, erect ovule. Stigma[jjj c tform, obtuse, or split. Berry one-seeded. Embryo dicotyledonousnocotyledonous, Blume ], inverted (Blume, Enum. Plant. Java, p. 64).