PEPPER.
The two great cities of antiquity knew how to appreciate pepper, and employed it largely in their culinary labours. They distinguished two kinds: one round, the other long and thin.[XXIII_81]
Dioscorides and Pliny describe the shrub, on which are to be seen pods filled with seeds of pepper, resembling millet, according to the first of these writers, and like small beans, according to the other.[XXIII_82]
Our readers no doubt remember the importance which Apicius ascribes to pepper, in the learned recipes of that skilful Archimagirus.