Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/542

516 only from and its   from, Peoria was one of the  s established by  , and was long known as a point of some importance on the route between  and.  PEPPER, a applied to several pungent known respectively as Black, White, Long, Red or Cayenne, Ashantee, Jamaica, and Melegueta Pepper, but derived from at least three different natural  of.

Black pepper is the of Piper nigrum, L., a  climbing  indigenous to the s of  and, from whence it has been introduced into, , , the , , the , and the. It is one of the earliest known to, and for many ages formed a staple article of  between  and ,—, , and the   of central  being ined to it for a large portion of their wealth. has been levied in pepper; one of the articles demanded in by  as part of the  of  was 3000  of pepper. Pepper-corn s prevailed during the, and consisted of an obligation to supply a certain quantity of pepper, usually 1 , at stated times; and the still lingers in use at the present day. The of the  during the  was exorbitantly high, and its excessive cost was one of the inducements which led the  to seek a -route to. The discovery of the passage round the led  to a considerable fall in the, and about the same time the  of the  was extended to the western islands of the. Pepper, however, remained a of the   as late as the. In it was formerly ed very heavily, the impost in  amounting to 5, and as late as  to 2 6 per. The largest quantities of pepper are produced in, the of, and near ,— affording on an average about half of the entire crop. is the great emporium for this in the East, the largest proportion being shipped thence to. In the s into  from  amounted to 21,179,059, valued at 385,108, and from other  559,909, valued at 12,979, the re-s being 12,925,886, chiefly to, , , , and. The varieties of black pepper met with in are known as,  or , , , , and. The average market value in the London market is—Malabar, 3 to 5 per ; Penang, 2 to 4; Singapore, 3 to 4.

Pepper owes its pungency to a, and its to a, of which it yields from 1·6 to 2·2 per cent. The agrees with  of  in  as well as in  and. In  it deviates the ray, in a column 50 long, 1°·2 to 3°·4 to the left. Pepper also contains a neutral line substance, called piperin, to the extent of 2 to 8 per cent. This substance has the same empirical formula as, ₁₂₁₉₃, but differs in constitution and properties. It is in  when pure, is devoid of, , and , and may be resolved into piperic , ₁₂₁₀₄, and piperidin, ₅₁₁. The latter is a less,  at 106°, has an  of pepper and , and yields lizable s. A ty  is found in the  of pepper, and the  yield on  from 4·1 to 5·7 of. The only use of pepper is as a. Notwithstanding its low and the  of 100 to which the, possessor, or seller of the  article is , ed pepper is frequently  with , , , and other substances, which can be readily detected under the.

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