Fruits so conspicuous, so easily grown in gardens, and so agreeable to the palate of the inhabitants of hot countries, would have been very quickly diffused throughout the old world, if they had existed in the south of Asia, as it has sometimes been supposed. They would have had names in several ancient languages. Yet neither Romans, Greeks, nor even Hebrews were acquainted with them. They are not mentioned in ancient Chinese books.[1433] The islanders of the Pacific did not cultivate them at the time of Cook’s voyages,[1434] in spite of their proximity to the Sunda Isles, where Rumphius mentions their very general use. The Arabian physician, Ebn Baithar, who collected in the thirteenth century all that Eastern nations knew about medicinal plants, says nothing about it. Roxburgh knew no Sanskrit name for the capsicums. Later, Piddington mentions a name for _C. frutescens_, _bran-maricha_,[1435] which he says is Sanskrit; but this name, which may be compared to that of black pepper (_muricha_, _murichung_), is probably not really ancient, for it has left no trace in the Indian languages which are derived from Sanskrit.[1436] The wild nature and ancient existence of the capsicum is always uncertain, owing to its very general cultivation; but it seems to me to be more often doubtful in Asia than in South America. The Indian specimens described by the most trustworthy authors nearly all come from the herbaria of the East India Company, in which we never know whether a plant appeared really wild, if it was found far from dwellings, in forests, etc. For the localities in the Malay Archipelago authors often give rubbish-heaps, hedges, etc. We pass to a more particular examination of the two cultivated species. +Annual Capsicum+—_Capsicum annuum_, Linnæus. This species has a number of different names in European languages,[1437] which all indicate a foreign origin and the resemblance of the taste to that of pepper. In French it is often called _poivre de Guinée_ (Guinea pepper), but also _poivre du Brézil_, _d’Inde_ (Indian, Brazilian pepper), etc., denominations to which no importance can be attributed. Its cultivation was introduced into Europe in the sixteenth century. It was one of the peppers that Piso and Marcgraf[1438] saw grown in Brazil under the name _quija_ or _quiya_. They say nothing as to its origin. The species appears to have been early cultivated in the West Indies, where it has several Carib names.[1439] Botanists who have most thoroughly studied the genus Capsicum[1440] do not appear to have found in herbaria a single specimen which can be considered wild. I have not been more fortunate. The original home is probably Brazil. _C. grossum_, Willdenow, seems to be a variety of the same species. It is cultivated in India under the name _kafree murich_, and _kafree chilly_, but Roxburgh did not consider it to be of Indian origin.[1441] +Shrubby Capsicum+—_Capsicum frutescens_, Willdenow.