The black pepper of commerce is obtained from the dried unripe fruit (drupes) of Piper nigrum, a climbing plant common in the East Indies, and of the simplest culture, being multiplied with facility by cuttings or suckers.  The ripe fruit, when deprived of its outer fleshy covering by washing, forms the white pepper of the shops.  The dried fruiting spikes of P. longum, a perennial shrub, native of Malabar and Bengal, constitute long pepper.  The fruit of Xylopia aromatica is commonly called Ethiopian pepper, from being used as pepper in Africa.  The seeds of some species of fennel-flower (Nigella sativa and arvensis), natives of the south of Europe, were formerly used instead of pepper, and are said to be still extensively employed in adulterating it.  In Japan, the capsules of Xanthoxylum piperitum, or Fagara Piperita, are used as a substitute for pepper, and so is the fruit of Tasmannia aromatica in Van Diemen’s Land.  According to Dr. Roxburgh, P. trioicum is cultivated in the East, and yields an excellent pepper.

The pepper vine rises about two feet in the first year of its growth, and attains to nearly six feet in the second, at which time, if vigorous and healthy, the petals begin to form the corolla or blossom.  All suckers and side shoots are to be carefully removed, and the vines should be thinned or pruned, if they become bushy at the top.  Rank coarse weeds and parasitical plants should be uprooted.  The vine would climb, if permitted, to the elevation of twenty feet, but is said to bear best when kept down to the height of ten or twelve feet.  It produces two crops in the year.  The fruit grows abundantly from all the branches, in long small clusters of from 20 to 50 grains; when ripe it is of a bright red color.  After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun to dry, when it becomes black and shrivelled.  The grains are separated from the stalks by hand rubbing.  The roots and thickest parts of the stems, when cut into small pieces and dried, form a considerable article of commerce all over India, under the name of Pippula moola.

Almost all the plants of the family Piperaceae have a strong aromatic smell and a sharp burning taste.  This small group of plants is confined to the hottest regions of the globe; being most abundant in tropical America and in the East Indian Archipelago, but more rare in the equinoctial regions of Africa.  The common black pepper, P. nigrum, represents the usual property of the order, which is not confined to the fruit, but pervades, more or less, the whole plant.  It is peculiar to the torrid zone of Asia, and appears to be indigenous to the coast of Malabar, where it has been found in a wild state.  From this it extends between the meridians of longitude 96 deg. and 116 deg.  S. and the parallels of latitude 5 deg.  S. and 12 deg.  N., beyond which no pepper is found.  Within these limits are the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, with the Malay peninsula and part of Siam.  Sumatra produces by far the greatest quantity of pepper.  In 1842, the annual produce of this island was reckoned at 30,000,000 lbs., being more than the amount furnished by all the other pepper districts in the world.