White Pepper.
Piper Album.
Also see: Black Pepper - White Pepper - Long Pepper - Jamaica Pepper - Guinea Pepper.
The common white pepper we meet with, is made from the black, by soking it in sea water till it swells, and the dark wrinkled coat falls off; but this though the common, is not the true white pepper: there is another kind, which is natural, and has no assistance from art. The white pepper plant, has round, thick, and whitish stalks: they lie upon the ground, and have large joints: at each joint stands a single leaf, which is long, and narrow, sharp at the end, and ribbed. The flowers grow on little stalks, hanging down from the joints: they are small and yellow. The fruit is round; at first green, and when ripe white, which is gathered and dried for use.
This fruit is used. The common white pepper is milder than the black; that is, it is black pepper, which has lost a part of its virtue: this possesses all the qualities of the other, and yet it has not so sharp a taste.
