Order Cxlvii
PIPERACEÆ.
The peppers are far more valuable in commerce than interesting in cultivation, their flowers being in all cases very insignificant, and their leaves so uniform in appearance, as to create but little variety. Nearly the whole indeed of the herbaceous species or Peperómias, as they are sometimes called, are mere weeds. The berry of the pepper is well known to be hot, aromatic, pungent, and stimulating; not only in the common peppers of the shops, but also in P. cubéba, carpúnga, and heterophyllum. The Píper anisátum yields a strong smell of anise; a decoction of its berries is used in Spanish America for washing ulcers. The Piper Bétel and Siribóa afford the Malays a powerfully acrid and exciting preparation, which, they suppose, invigorates and enables them to withstand the debilitating influence of their climate. In the South Sea Islands, an inebriating beverage is procured by the mixture of the leaves and stems of P. inébrians with water. No pepper has yet been found beyond the limits of the tropics. Saurúrus is the representative of the order in extra-tropical countries. 77 Piper W. 872 Saurúrus W.