White and Black Varieties and Why--How the Plant Is Cultivated and Where--History the Grocer Should Know to Judge Qualities Pepper is a commodity to be found in every grocery store, but how many grocers know that the pepper plant--Piper nigrum--which produces the white and black pepper of commerce, is a climbing vine-like shrub, found growing wild in the forests of Travanscore and Malabar coast of India? It is extensively cultivated in southwest India, whence it has been introduced into Java, Borneo, the Malay peninsula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies. Pepper in the time of Alexander the Great was considered an extremely choice article and, like gold and precious stones, was for many generations found only on royal tables. During the Middle Ages, it was used as money in payment of tolls, etc., hence the custom of “pepper corn” rentals, i. e., a nominal rental or perpetual lease; and its high price is said to have been one of the causes which led the Portuguese to seek a sea passage to India. The pepper plant grows naturally to 20 ft. in height, but is cultivated on trellises or poles, about 10 or 12 ft. high and is propagated by cuttings or suckers. It has a soft stem, the leaves are 4 to 6 in. long, tough, glossy, broadly ovate, with 5 to 7 nerves, and grow opposite and alternate to a pendulous spike 5 to 8 in. long, having 20 to 50 white flowers that ripen into a one-seeded fruit with a fleshy exterior. This fleshy berry, covering a soft stone, is about the size of a pea and is at first green, but in ripening turns red, which gradually darkens to a deep chocolate shade. The vine begins to bear when 3 or 4 years old and continues bearing for the next 10 or 15 years. It is in perfection at its eighth year. [Illustration]