PEPPER (AS. piper, piper, from Let. piper, from Gk. rirepc, piperi, rerept, peperi, pepper, from Slat. pippala, long pepper), Piper. A genus of plants of the natural order Piperacee (q.v.), with woody stems, solitary spikes opposite to the leaves, and covered with flowers on all sides, the flowers mostly hermaphrodite. The most impor tant species is common pepper o• black pepper (Piper migrum), which is a native of the East Indies, cultivated also in many tropical coun tries. and extensively in some parts of the new world, its fruit being the most common and largely used of all spices. It is a rambling and climbing shrub, with smooth and spongy stems, 12 to 20 feet in length, and broadly ovate, acu minate, leathery leaves. The fruit is about the size of a pea, of a bright-red color when ripe, not crowded on the spike. In cultivation, the pepper plant is supported by poles, or by small trees planted for the purpose. It is propagated by cuttings, comes into bearing in three o• four years after it is planted, and yields two crops annually for about twelve years. When any of the 'berries' of a spike begin to change from green to red, all are gathered, as when more fully ripe they are less pungent, besides being apt to drop off. Pepper was known to the an cients; Hippocrates used it as a medicine. In the Middle Ages pepper was one of the most cost ly spices, and in the thirteenth century a few pounds of it were reckoned a princely present.
The black pepper of commerce consists of the dried berries. 'White pepper is the seed freed from the skin and fleshy part of the fruit, to ef fect which the dried fruit is soaked in water and then rubbed. Pepper depends for its chiefly on an acrid resin and an acrid volatile oil; it contains also a crystalline substance called piperin. The fruit of Piper trioicum, a species very similar to the common pepper, is more pungent, and is cultivated in some parts of In dia. Red pepper is chiefly obtained from spe cies of Capsicum (q.v.), especially Capsicum an nuum and Capsicum frutescens, varieties of which are grown in gardens in temperate cli mates. The larger fruited sorts, green or ripe, furnish peppers for pickling; while the smaller sorts are used in making chili, capsicum, or cayenne sauce for meats. etc. The culture of red peppers is about the same as for eggplant (q.v.). See illustrations of VEGETABLES; FLAVORING PLANTS.
Jamaica pepper (or pimento) is a species of Eugenia, of the natural order Myrtacele. and Guinea pepper, or 31eleguetta pepper, species of the natural orders Scitaminea and Anonace. See Cassferm; ALLSPICE; GRAINS OF PARADISE; and GUINEA PEPPER.