SPICES THEIR NATURE AND GROWTH THE VANILLA-BEAN A TALK ON TEA McCORMICK & CO. Importers and Grinders of Spices Manufacturing Chemists Importers of Tea BALTIMORE, MARYLAND Copyright, 1915, by McCormick & Co., Baltimore, Md. [Illustration: MUNDER THOMSEN PRESS, BALTIMORE] Dedicated to Domestic Science and to those who are devoting their energy, talent and time to the dissemination of that knowledge which makes for purer and better foods—to the Domestic Science Teachers of America. In response to hundreds of requests from schools, colleges and individuals for information regarding the different varieties of Spices we have prepared this booklet, and have endeavored to give as concisely as possible the facts necessary to a thorough understanding of the subject. As there has hitherto been no complete compilation along this line, it has been necessary to obtain from foreign sources much of the material, while some of the illustrations represent weeks of patient research by our art department. To the U. S. Department of Agriculture we are indebted for much valuable information, and for this we wish to make due acknowledgment. [Illustration: (Capsicums)] Chillie or Guinea Pepper Japan Bombay Spanish Paprika Pod (Chillies) Mombassa Japan (White) Muntok Singapore Pod Pepper Black Pepper Tellicherry Long Pepper Aleppy Lampong ½ Natural size Pepper and Capsicums Pepper is the dried berry of the pepper-plant (_Piper nigrum_), a climbing vine ten to twelve feet high, indigenous to the East Indies, but cultivated in many tropical countries. [Illustration: A Group of Pepper Mills] The berries are harvested when they begin to turn red, and the process of drying out blackens and shrivels them. They are not picked separately, but in spikes or bunches, and are then placed on mats to dry. At night the berries are placed under cover. The average yield per vine is eight to ten pounds each year. The different varieties of Black Pepper derive their name from the localities in which they are grown or the ports whence they are shipped, as Singapore, Lampong, Sumatra, Tellicherry, Acheen, Malabar, Trang, etc. White Pepper This is obtained by decorticating or removing the skin from the fully ripened black peppercorns—accomplished by maceration. White Whole Pepper grains are grayish white. They are more nearly spherical in shape than the Black Pepper berries, and have light-colored lines running from top to bottom. The more common varieties are known as Siam, Singapore and Penang. Red Pepper