Its stem has numerous joints, and throws out roots at every joint. The leaves, which are somewhat egg-shaped, and pointed, are of a brownish colour, and have each seven very strong nerves. The flowers are small and white.
In the cultivation of pepper it is customary to mark out the grounds into regular squares of about six feet each, which is the usual distance allowed for the plants. And, as these have not sufficient strength to support themselves in an upright growth, they are generally placed near a thorny kind of shrub, among the branches of which they creep like ivy. When they have run to a considerable height, the twigs, on which the berries hang, bend down, and the fruit appears in long slender clusters, of from twenty to fifty grains, somewhat resembling, but much more compact than, bunches of currants. The berries are green when young, but change to a bright red colour when ripe. As soon as they begin to redden, they are in a fit state to be gathered. When gathered, they are spread upon mats in the sun, where they are suffered to remain till they become dry, black, and shrivelled, as we see them. In this state they have the denomination of black pepper.
White pepper is nothing more than the best and soundest of the berries, gathered when they are fully ripe, and stripped of their external coat or skin. To effect this they are steeped, for about a week, in salt water, by the end of which time the skins burst. They are then dried in the sun, rubbed between the hands, and winnowed. Thus cleared from their skins they are rendered smaller and more smooth than black pepper.
As the acridity of pepper lies principally in the skin, this kind becomes, of course, much less pungent than the other; but it has one recommendation, that it can be made only of the best and soundest grains, taken at their most perfect state of maturity.
Pepper is an article of considerable traffic betwixt this country and the East Indies. That which is imported from Malabar is considered better than any other. The quantity of pepper vended at the East India Company's sales has, in some years, exceeded six millions of pounds' weight, of which seven or eight hundred thousand pounds have been retained for home consumption.
Both black and white pepper are in daily use, not only as a spice, but also in cookery. When coarsely ground, pepper is eaten with peas, cabbages, cucumbers, and other flatulent and cold vegetables; and occasionally also with fish. It is sometimes employed in medicine as a stimulant.
A singular imposition respecting pepper is occasionally practised in retail shops in London: artificial pepper-corns, both black and white, are mixed and sold with real pepper. The detection of this fraudulent mixture, however, is easy. If a handful of the suspected pepper be thrown into water, the artificial corns will fall to powder, or be partially dissolved, while the true pepper-corns will remain whole. The fraudulent grains are said to be made of peas-meal.
21. LONG PEPPER is the fruit of a slender climbing shrub (Piper longum) which grows in the East Indies.
It is of cylindrical shape, about an inch and half in length, and a quarter of an inch in thickness; and is formed by the union of a great number of small rounded grains. The shrub that produces it has dark green and heart-shaped leaves, each with seven strong nerves.
A considerable quantity of long pepper is annually imported in this country from Bengal and other parts of the East, for use, both in domestic economy and in medicine.