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PEPPER TREE

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 130 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PEPPER See also:TREE , a tree which has no proper connexion with the true pepper (See also:Piper), and is really a member of the natural See also:order Anacardiaceae, being known botanically as Schinus Molle, from the Peruvian name Mulli. It is a native of tropical See also:South See also:America and is grown in the open See also:air in the south of See also:Europe. It is a small tree with unequally pinnate leaves, the segments linear, entire or finely saw-toothed, the terminal one longer than the See also:rest, and all filled with volatile oil stored in large cells or cysts, which are visible to the naked See also:eye and appear like holes when the See also:leaf is held up to the See also:light. When the leaves are thrown upon the See also:surface of See also:water the resinous or oily fluid escapes with such force as violently to agitate them. The See also:flowers are small, whitish, arranged in terminal clusters and polygamous or unisexual, with five sepals, as many petals, ten stamens (as large as the petals in the See also:case of the male See also:flower, very small in the See also:female flower, but in both springing from a See also:cushion-like disk surrounding the See also:base of the three-celled ovary). The See also:style is See also:simple or three-cleft, and the See also:fruit a small, globose, See also:pea-like drupe with a bony See also:kernel enclosing a single See also:seed. The fleshy portion of the fruit has a hot aromatic flavour from the abundance of the See also:resin it contains. The resin is used for medicinal purposes by the Peruvians, and has similar properties to See also:mastic. The See also:Japan pepper tree is Xanthoxylum piperitum the fruits of which have also a hot See also:taste. Along the See also:Riviera the tree known as Melia Azedarach, or the " See also:Pride of See also:India," is also incorrectly called the pepper tree by visitors.

End of Article: PEPPER TREE

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