FRENCH, _Poivre_; German, _Pfeffer_; Italian, _Pepe Nero_; Spanish, _Pimienta_; Portuguese, _Pimenta_; Cyngalese, _Gammaris_; Javanese, _Maricha_; Persian, _Filfll-Seeah_; Hindoostanse, _Gol-mirch_. Pepper (Piper) Nigrum, a name employed by the Romans, and derived by them from the Greek word _peperi_; the Greeks in their turn must have derived it from the Hindoos. Botanically it is applied to the typical genus plant of the natural order _piperaceae_. Of all the varieties of spices used as a condiment, pepper is the only one which grows on a climbing vine, and there is no kind of spice better known or more esteemed or more extensively used than pepper. Its consumption is enormous. Black pepper is one of the earliest spices known to mankind, being of extreme antiquity. Choice spices and rare gums were among the precious treasures of the kings of Egypt more than two thousand years before the Christian era. The history of its development from earliest times is well brought out by the account given in the Pharmacopœia. According to Fluckiger and Hanbury the spice was well known as early as the fourth century B. C. Arrian, the author of Periplus of the Frythrean Sea, which was written about A. D. 618, states that pepper was then imported from Barake, the shipping place of Nelkunda localities, which have been identified with points on the Malabar coast. To this spice, Venice, Genoa, and other commercial cities of central Europe are indebted for much of their wealth. The caravan of trading Midianites, who purchased Joseph from his brethren and sold him into Egypt were bearers of “spices and balm” for the Egyptian market, and when the sons of Jacob were making preparations to visit the land the second time to propitiate the lord of the realm, their father said to them: “Take of the best fruits of the land and carry down a little balm, and a little honey, spice, and myrrh, nuts and almonds.” During the palmy days of Egypt, when they embalmed all of their distinguished dead, precious gums and fragrant pungent spices were largely called into requisition. Even the Israelites in their ritualistic worship held in such high esteem many of these rare gums and oils that their law forbade their use for any other purpose.