The inhabitants of India drink water in which long pepper has been infused, and esteem it a valuable remedy for some disorders of the stomach. They also distil an ardent spirit from it; and they pickle this fruit in vinegar, for use at table.
The fruit that is collected for exportation is gathered before it is quite ripe.
22. BETEL is the leaf of a climbing East Indian plant (Piper betel) which belongs to the same tribe as pepper; and, in shape and appearance, is not much unlike that of ivy, but is more tender, and full of juice.
There is an almost incredible consumption of betel over the whole continent of India. The inhabitants chew it almost incessantly, and in such quantity that their lips become quite red, and their teeth black, a colour greatly preferred by them to the whiteness which Europeans so much affect. They carry it, in little white boxes, about their persons, and present it to each other, by way of compliment and civility, in the same manner as the Europeans do snuff. This is done by women as well as by men: and it would be considered an offence if those to whom it was offered should refuse to accept of, and chew it. The leaves are sometimes used alone, but much more commonly covered with a kind of lime made of sea shells, and wrapped round slices of the areca nut ([245]).
CLASS III.—TRIANDRIA.
MONOGYNIA.
23. SAFFRON is the orange-coloured pistil, or centre part, of a purple species of crocus (Crocus sativus) which flowers in the autumn, and is chiefly distinguished by having the three extremities of the pistil so long as to hang out of the flower (Fig. 6.)
In Cambridgeshire there is a town called Saffron Walden, that has its name from the quantity of saffron which is annually produced in its neighbourhood.