the English name of a genus of tropical plants, and also of the fruit which is used as a condiment. The most important of these is black pepper, the dried ripe berries of Piper nigrum (Linn.), Nat. Ord. Piperaceae, a shrubby, climbing plant, which has for ages been cultivated in India. It has been introduced into the West Indies, tropical Africa, and South America, where it succeeds admirably. The earliest mention of pepper is by Hippocrates, who employed and recommended it as a medicine. Pliny refers to it as a condiment; but it is doubtful if he could have referred to the true pepper, as he declares that it has neither strength nor taste to recommend it.

The short spike-shaped clusters of berries are produced in great abundance, and when ripe the berries resemble those of our common holly in size and colour, but they lose their bright scarlet colour and smoothness in drying, and become wrinkled and black. In this state we receive them, and they are ground into the coarse grey powder known at table as black pepper. White pepper is the produce of the same plant, but in order to manufacture it, the black wrinkled coats of the seeds are removed by soaking and friction; they are then somewhat smaller, perfectly spherical, and of a light drab colour. It is ground to powder, and used in a similar manner, and is by many preferred in consequence of its apparently superior appearance, but it loses both strength and flavour by the manipulation.

Long pepper is the produce of a distinct species, the Piper longum of Linnæus, or Chavica Roxburghii of Miquel, a native of the Cirea Mountains, where it is gathered in its wild state. It is also cultivated in some parts of India. The time for gathering it is just before ripening, when the fruits are very small, and are compactly pressed together upon a small cylindrical spike, which, with the fruit, is about an inch and a half in length, and a little thicker than a quill: when dried it is of a light greyish colour. We receive it from Bengal; but the quantity imported is inconsiderable, as its qualities are analogous to those of white pepper. It enters into certain medicinal preparations, and is a favourite in some culinary operations, particularly the manufacture of pickles. Betel pepper, the leaf of which is so extensively used in India and its islands as a masticatory, is the produce of Piper Betel (Linn.), or Charicis Betel of Miquel. It is not imported into Europe. Cubeb pepper is the dried berries of Cubeba officinalis. They are rather smaller and less wrinkled than those of black pepper, and are of a dark brown colour. Cubeb pepper is extensively used in medicine, and has been in high esteem from a very early period. It was employed by the Moors; and in England, during the reign of Edward I., the London merchants held the right to levy a toll of one farthing per pound upon all cubeb carried over London Bridge,—an indication that even then this medicinal pepper constituted an important article of commerce. In 1856 the imports to the United Kingdom were 25½ tons, worth from £5.5 to £6 per cwt. Cayenne pepper is a compound condiment, the principal ingredient in which is the epidermis and pulp of the common capsicum (Capsicum annum, Linn., Nat. Ord. Solanaceæ), a plant very extensively cultivated in most tropical countries, but said to have been procured originally from South America. The best Cayenne pepper is made in the West Indies. The berries, which are often larger than an egg, although other varieties are scarcely larger than a clove, are opened, and the seeds are taken out; the scarlet epidermis and pulp are then well beaten up with flour and salt into a paste, which is afterwards baked until quite hard, and then ground into a coarse powder, which is put into well-corked bottles for use. Other methods are used, but this is the mode of preparing the much-prized West India Cayenne pepper. The Neighberry pepper, so highly esteemed by East Indian epicures, is prepared in a similar manner from the berries of a yellow variety of the same species, which is cultivated for the purpose on the Neighberry Hills. It is flavoured with cumin and other aromatic seeds. The two last-mentioned condiments, though so essentially different from the true peppers, pay the same duty (6d. per lb. and 5 per cent.), and are included in the same returns as the others, with the exception of cubeb pepper, which, as a drug, is duty free. The quantity imported in 1856 was 4826 tons, worth £224,746. Of this enormous quantity, 2238 tons were re-exported. It was Pepper is occasionally adulterated with farinaceous matter, such as starch or powdered rice; and bone-dust, known to the trade as "ivory-dust," is sometimes used to adulterate white pepper. An adulterate for pepper, under the name of "P.D." (i.e., pepper-dust), is manufactured from rape or linseed cake, mustard dross, and Cayenne pepper. (See "Blue-book" on Adulteration of Food, &c., 1856.)