ANNUUM HERBACEOUS OR SUFFRUTESCENT
The true peppers are members of a totally distinct order, the Piperaceoe.
French, Piment or Corail des Jardins Poivra d’Inde or Guinee; German, Spanisher Oderkerscher Pfeffer.
Cayenne takes its name from the city of Cayenne (Koyen or Kien) (see [illustration]), or from the island and river, both of same name, on which it is located, or from the province of Cayenne in French Guiana, South America. The city of Cayenne is a French penal station, and exports large quantities of Cayenne, which we call Guiana pepper.
Probably the first known history of Cayenne pepper in Europe is that given by Martyr, who writes of Columbus bringing it home with him in 1493, and speaks of it as being more pungent than that from Caucasus, probably referring to the Oriental black pepper. About a century later, Gerarde writes of its being brought into Europe from Africa and Southern Asia and being grown in European gardens. Probably the first record of its use is that given by Doctor Chauca, who was physician with Columbus’s fleet in 1494, and who alludes to it as a condiment used in dressing meats, dyeing, and other purposes, as well as a medicine.
Cayenne pepper is supposed to have first been brought to America by the Portuguese, who found it growing in a wild state. Our greater supply now comes from Zanzibar, Nepaul, Bombay, and Penang. Almost every gardener knows the red pepper plant. The plants are generally started in a nursery or hot-house in early spring, from the seed, and are transplanted when a few inches high, as soon as the weather will permit, in the prepared garden, about four feet apart. When about six inches high, a little rich fertilizer should be worked in the soil about the plants. The Cayenne pepper plant is an annual and is a slow grower, and it seldom rises higher than four feet. It has a rough stem, nearly globulous, with branches diffused and often scandent; the leaves are lancelate, quite entire and repand, small, smooth, petioled, alternate in pairs or near each other, greenish-white flowers, seldom violaceous; solitary or in twos and threes with rotate five, rarely six or seven, cleft corolla; stamens, five, and rarely six or seven, with five bluish anthers (connivent and dehising longitudinally) and an obtuse stigma, calyx usually embracing base of ovary, which soon becomes a pod, consisting of a fleshy envelope at first and afterwards a leathery, oblong, linear, juiceless pod or fruit, in which are the spongy pulp and seeds. These fruit pods are of several varieties, varying in shape and color, and being long or short, podded and oval, round or heart-shaped. The pods are bright red or yellow, divided into two or three cells full of small white seeds, known as pod pepper. The pods which are of a green color, when full grown, commence to change first to a lovely canary yellow and then to a rose pink, and so on through the different shades until they are intense scarlet when ready for harvesting in August and September (see [illustration]).
Don gives a list of thirty-three varieties in his General System of Gardening and Botany, which are used to make Cayenne pepper, but there are ninety different species of capsicum known, and ranging in height from a small plant of six inches to ornamental plants six feet in height, and of many varieties or species of capsicum too contribute to that found in commerce.
The C. frutescens of the Fastigiatum (perennial) sometimes reaches to a height of several feet with branching and spreading tops, sometimes decumbent, leaves broadly ovate, fruit of various shapes and colors, usually small and very pungent, borne on long peduncles and is the species which is officinal in both the British and United States Pharmacopœias. It grows in tropical Africa and America and is called Zanzibar pepper, and often by the name of Mexican chillies, and is of a high grade of Cayenne ([Fig. 1]). Its pods are very small, being from one-half to three-fourths inch long and very bright red, containing white seeds, the skin of the pods being tender and very pungent. The color of its powder is lighter yellow than C. annum, has a fibrous root system. Potato and tomato belonging to the same family, it is found growing in the United States and Europe and has been growing in English gardens since 1548 and, although indigenous to South America, is now cultivated in India, Hungary, Italy, and Turkey.
Nepaul capsicum (or Nepal and Nipal), as it is sometimes called, has an odor and flavor resembling orris and a pod the color of amber when dried. It is most esteemed as a condiment, being aromatic and appetizing, and not so acrid or biting as is most Cayenne. It is found cultivated on the mountain side in Hindoostan.
Cayenne of the African variety comes from Sierra Leone in the east and from Natal, southeast of Cape Colony, including Zululand and Tangaland, or from a territory that has a coast line of 300 miles. It grows to a height of five or six feet producing long, kidney-shaped, orange-colored pods. It is shipped from the port of Natal. It is considered the best for fluid extract. That from Sierra Leone ([Fig. 3]) has pods that are small, conical-pointed, and less than one inch in length. It is very pungent, and when reduced to powder is a light brownish yellow with a peculiar odor and somewhat aromatic. It is stronger in the powder than in the dry fruit, and to the taste is bitterish, acrid, and burning, producing, a fiery sensation in the mouth, which continues for a long time. There is a new Cayenne on the market of recent date, called Mombassa, from the city of the same name in Africa.