CAPSICUM, a genus of plants of the natural order solanacece, having a wheel-shaped corolla, projecting and converging stamens, and a dry berry. The species are all of a shrubby, bushy appearance, and have more or less woody stems, although they are annual or biennial plants. The number of species is very uncertain, some botanists dis tinguishing many, whilst others regard them as mere varieties of a few. They are natives of the warm parts of America and of Asia, have simple leaves, and rather inconspicuous flowers, and some of them are in very general cultivation in tropical and sub-tropical countries for their fruit, which is extremely pungent and stimulant, and is employed in sauces, mixed pickles, etc. often under its Mexican name of chillies; and when dried and ground forms the spice called Cayenne pepper. As a condiment it improves the flavor of food, aids digestion, and prevents flatulence. In tropical countries, it counteracts the enervating influence of external heat. In medicine, it is used as a stimulant, rubefacient, and vesicant; is often administered in combination with cinchona; and is particularly valuable both internally administered and as a gargle; not only in relaxed conditions of the throat, but in some of those diseases in which the throat is most dangerously affected. As a medicine, C. is administered in pills, mixed with bread; in the form of tincture, obtained by digesting the bruised C. in alcohol, or of an infusion, procured by digestion in water, with varying proportions of salt and vinegar. A gargle of C. is prepared by
infusing it in water, along with candy-sugar and vinegar, and thereafter adding a little infusion of roses. It has no narcotic properties. It owes its power chiefly to capsicine (q.v.). The fruits of the different species of C. differ in form, being round, oval, coni cal, heart-shaped, etc, ; they vary from half an inch to 4 in. in length, and are sometimes of a bright red, sometimes of a yellow color. In all, the dry berry has an inflated appear ante, and contains numerous whitish flattened seeds, which are even more pungent than the leathery epidermis, or the spongy pulp. Cayenne pepper chiefly of the ground seeds. a annuum, sometimes called common C., or Chilly pepper, is perhaps the most common species in cultivation; and in the sourthern parts of Britain, if raised on a hot-bed as a tender annual, it produces fruit in the open border. There are several varieties of it. C. frutescens, sometimes called goat pepper, and a baceatum, sometimes called bird pepper, have great pungency, and the former is generally described as the true Cayenne pepper. C.cera8iforme, with a small cherry-like fruit, and therefore called •cherry pepper, and a grossum, with a large, oblong, or ovate fruit, known as bell pepper, are frequently cultivated.--The fruit is used either ripe or unripe, except for Cayenne pepper, for which ripe fruit is employed. The fruit brought from South America is sometimes sold by druggists under the name Guinea pepper.