Pepper (41 page)

Betel (
Piper betle
) leaves, often called paan, displayed at a market in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
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ARGOT
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RANITSAS /
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ESEARCHERS,
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Peter Mundy's drawing of a pepper garden in Surat in northwestern India.
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ODLEIAN
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IBRARY, WITH
PERMISSION

Long pepper (
Piper longum
), preferred by ancient Romans.
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EOFF
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IDD /
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ESEARCHERS,
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Tailed Javanese pepper (
Piper cubeb
)
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EOFF
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IDD /
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ESEARCHERS,
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The spice called grains of paradise, melegeuta, or guinea pepper (
Afro
momum melegueta
), native to West Africa, was widely used in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
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Allspice, from the plant
Pimenta dioica,
is one of the few spices native to the New World. Columbus believed these berries were peppercorns.
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OTO-
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ERBUNG /
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ESEARCHERS,
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A drawing of a black peppercorns from the first edition of Charles Lécluse's Latin version of Garcia da Orta's masterwork,
Conversations on the Simples, Drugs and the Medicinal Substances of India
. The book, originally in Portuguese, was published in Goa, India, in 1563.
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HE
L
U
E
STHER
T. M
ERTZ
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IBRARY OF
T
HE
N
EW
Y
ORK
B
OTANICAL
G
ARDEN,
B
RONX,
N
EW
Y
ORK

Black pepper (
Piper nigrum
)
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CIMAT /
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A hand-colored engraving of an Indian betel dealer weighing his goods, published in 1822.
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MAGE
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SSET
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ANAGEMENT
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TD./
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UPERSTOCK

Peter Mundy's drawing of an elephant fight in Banda Aceh.
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ODLEIAN
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IBRARY, WITH PERMISSION

A drawing from
Linschoten's Itinerario
, published in 1598, features the lush flora of India. Notice the pepper (peeper) vine climbing the palm tree in the far right.
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UNTINGTON
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IBRARY, WITH PERMISSION