PIPERACEÆ.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRI.
Piper nigrum; Black Pepper; F. Poivre noir; G. Schwarzer Pfeffer.
Botanical Origin—Piper nigrum L.—The pepper plant is a perennial climbing shrub, with jointed stems branching dichotomously, and broadly ovate, 5-to 7-nerved, stalked leaves. The slender flower-spikes are opposite the leaves, stalked, and from 3 to 6 inches long; and the fruits are sessile and fleshy.
Piper nigrum is indigenous to the forests of Travancore and Malabar, whence it has been introduced into Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies.
History—Pepper[2144] is one of the spices earliest used by mankind, and although now a commodity of but small importance in comparison with sugar, coffee, and cotton, it was for many ages the staple article of trade between Europe and India. It would require in fact a volume to give a full idea of the prominent importance of pepper during the middle ages.
In the 4th century b.c., Theophrastus noticed the existence of two kinds of pepper (πέπερι), probably the Black Pepper and Long Pepper of modern times. Dioscorides stated pepper to be a production of India, and was acquainted with White Pepper (λευκὸν πέπερι). Pliny’s information on the same subject is curious; he tells us that in his time a pound of long pepper was worth 15, of white 7, and of black pepper 4 denarii; and expresses his astonishment that mankind should so highly esteem pepper, which was neither a sweet taste nor attractive appearance, or any desirable quality besides a certain pungency.
In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about a.d. 64, it is stated that pepper is exported from Baraké, the shipping place of Nelkunda, in which region, and there only, it grows in great quantity. These have been identified with places on the Malabar Coast between Mangalore and Calicut.[2145]
Long pepper and Black pepper are among the Indian spices on which the Romans levied duty at Alexandria about a.d. 176.[2146]
Cosmas Indicopleustes,[2147] a merchant, and in later life a monk, who wrote about a.d. 540, appears to have visited the Malabar Coast, or at all events had some information about the pepper plant from an eye-witness. It is he who furnishes the first particulars about it, stating that it is a climbing plant, sticking close to high trees like a vine. Its native country he calls Male. [2148] The Arabian authors of the middle ages, as Ibn Khurdádbah (circa a.d. 869-885), Edrisi in the middle of the 12th, and Ibn Batuta in the 14th century, furnished nearly similar accounts.