Pepper and Capsicums
Pepper is the dried berry of the pepper-plant (Piper nigrum), a climbing vine ten to twelve feet high, indigenous to the East Indies, but cultivated in many tropical countries.
A Group of Pepper Mills
The berries are harvested when they begin to turn red, and the process of drying out blackens and shrivels them. They are not picked separately, but in spikes or bunches, and are then placed on mats to dry. At night the berries are placed under cover.
The average yield per vine is eight to ten pounds each year.
The different varieties of Black Pepper derive their name from the localities in which they are grown or the ports whence they are shipped, as Singapore, Lampong, Sumatra, Tellicherry, Acheen, Malabar, Trang, etc.