1. Piper, Linn.

Shrubs or rarely small trees or tall herbs; branches often jointed and swollen at the nodes. Leaves alternate, entire, equal or unequal at the base; stipules often adnate to the petiole. Spikes slender, solitary and leaf-opposed, or solitary or 2–3 together in the axils, sometimes umbelled on a common peduncle. Flowers diœcious or hermaphrodite, minute, closely packed, each one situated in the axil of a peltate or cupular or adnate bract, with or without lateral bracteoles. Perianth wanting. Stamens 1–4; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, the cells often placed back to back, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; stigmas 2–5, distinct; ovule solitary, erect. Berry small, ovoid or globose. Seed with a membranous testa; albumen hard.

One of the largest genera of the vegetable kingdom, containing more than 500 described species; found in all tropical countries, and specially plentiful in tropical South America.

• 1. P. excelsum, Forst. Prodr. n. 20.—An aromatic perfectly-glabrous densely branched shrub or small tree 8–20 ft. high; branches smooth, flexuose, jointed and swollen at the nodes. Leaves petiolate, 2–5 in. long including the petiole, orbicular-cordate or broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, cordate at the base or sometimes truncate or rounded, 7-nerved from the base, smooth and glabrous on both surfaces, yellowish-green; petioles ½–1½ in. long, lower portion broadly winged on each side by the adnate stipules. Spikes unisexual, solitary or binate, terminating short peduncles or branchlets springing from the axils of the leaves, slender, strict, erect, 1–3 in. long. Flowers minute, very densely packed, the bract orbicular-peltate, sessile. Stamens 2 or rarely 3. Stigmas 3 or rarely 4. Berries densely compacted, small, yellow, broadly obovoid, angled, succulent.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 356; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 323; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 228; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 254; Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 204. Macropiper excelsum, Miq. Syst. Pip. 221; F. Muell, Veg. Chath. Is. 48.

  Var. major,—Leaves larger, 4–8 in. long, usually 9-nerved. Spikes longer, sometimes 6 in. Approaches P. latifolium, Forst.

  Kermadec Islands: Var. major abundant, McGillivray, T. F. C. North Island: Var. major plentiful on the Three Kings Islands, the ordinary form common from thence southwards. South Island: In lowland districts from Nelson and Marlborough to Banks Peninsula and Okarito, usually near the coast. Chatham Islands: Not uncommon, Travers! Cox! Kawakawa. Flowers most of the year.

  Plentiful in Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island, also recorded from Tahiti and others of the Pacific islands. The fruit and leaves are aromatic and stimulating, and a decoction of the latter has been used for toothache.