ABSTRACT
Many pepper trees are found in the territory of Calicut: there are also some within the city, but not in large quanti ties. Its stem is like that of a vine, that is to say, it is planted near to some other tree, because, like the vine, it cannot stand erect. This tree grows like the ivy, which embraces and climbs as high as the wood or tree which it can grasp. The said plant throws out a great number of branches, which branches are from two to three palmi long. The leaves of these branches resemble those of the sour orange, but are more dry, and on the underneath part they are full of minute veins. From each of these branches there grow five, six, and eight clusters, a little longer than a man’s finger, and they are like small raisins, but more regularly arranged, and are as green as unripe grapes. They gather them in this green state in the month of October and even in November, and then they lay them in the sun on certain mats, and leave them in the sun for three or four days, when they become as black as they are seen amongst us without doing anything else to them. And you must know that these people neither prune nor hoe this tree which pro duces the pepper.1
