Flora Medica

een recommended and employed by the Italians as a febrifuge inintermittent fevers. It is said to be more certain and speedy, andalso milder in its operation than the Cinchona alkalies. See Pereirain Med. Gaz. xx. 180. In excessive doses Pepper is a dangerousstimulant.635. P. trioicum Roxb. fl.ind. i. 151. Mountains of Indiain the Raja-mundri Circar ;delighting in a moist rich soil, wellshaded with trees.Roots long, striking deep into the earth. Stem jointed, winding,when old woody, and scabrous, running along the ground to a greatextent, or up trees, &c. when trained to them ;from each joint issueroots which take firm hold of whatever they meet with. Branchesnumerous, alternate ; the young ones smooth, the old ones woody,and scabrous like the stem. Leaves alternate, petioled, cordate,broad-oval, ovate, or oblong, pointed, glaucous, from 5 to 7-nerved,smooth and glossy. Stipules sheathing, deciduous. Flowers dioecious.^. Spikes opposite the leaves, stalked, filiform, pendulous,closely imbricated with 5 spiral rows of fleshy, oval, scales. Filaments3, very thick, and very short, scarcely elevating the anthersabove the margins of the scales. Anthers 4-lobed. $ . Spikesopposite the leaves, shorter, thicker, and more rigid than in the male,imbricated with 3 spiral rows of scales. Ovary sessile, globose, immersedin the substance of the spike. Fruit succulent, small, round,red. Flowers sometimes hermaphrodite. Fruit exceedingly pungent,reckoned by pepper merchants at Madras equal if not superior to thebest pepper of the Malabar coast or Ceylon. See Roxb. 1. c. for importantmatter relating to the Pepper vines.636. P. longum Linn. sp. pi.4-1. Nees. and Eberm. handb.i. 101. plant, med. t. 23. Roxb.fi.ind. i. 154-. (Rheede vii. 1. 14.)India, wild among bushes on the banks of water-courses,up towards the Circar mountains ; much cultivated. (LongPepper.)Root woody, perennial. Stems many, creeping, jointed, round,downy when young. Branchlets bearing the fruit erect, with the leavessessile or nearly so. Leaves on the creeping branches largest, stalked,broad-cordate, 7-nerved; on the erect fruit-bearing branchlets amplexicaul,oblong-cordate, 5-nerved ; all smooth, somewhat wrinkled ;below pale green. Stipules of the petioled leaves 2, adhering to thepetiole and lanceolate ;of the sessile leaves intrapetiolar, single, spathiform.$ . Spike sessile, opposite a leaf, stalked, erect, cylindrical,imbricated with 5, or more spiral rows of small, orbicular, scales.Ovaries "sessile, sub-orbicular. Stigma 3 or 4-lobed. Spike of ripefruit, sub-cylindrical, composed of firmly united 1-seeded drupes.Female spikes dried form the long pepper of the shops. Root andthickest part of the stems cut into small slices and dried, are muchconsumed for medical purposes in India under the name of " PippulaMoola." See Roxb. 1. c. The effects of long pepper are analogous tothose of black pepper; some consider it less powerful, others areagreed in its being the more acrid of the two. N. B. Woodville's fig.of P. longum, according to Roxb. answers neither to this nor toP. Chaba, the island Long Pepper.311 x 4-