Guinea Pepper.
Capsicum.
Also see: Black Pepper - White Pepper - Long Pepper - Jamaica Pepper - Guinea Pepper.
A common plant in our gardens, distinguished by its large scarlet pods. It grows a foot and a half high. The stalk is angulated, thick, and green, tolerably erect, and branched. The leaves stand irregularly, and are longish, pretty broad, and of a deep green colour. The flowers are moderately large and white, with a yellow head in the middle: they grow at the divisions of the branches. The fruit follows, and is an inch and a half long, an inch thick, and biggest at the base, whence it grows smaller to the point: the colour is a fine red, and its surface is so smooth, that it looks like polished coral: it is a skin containing a quantity of seeds.
The fruit is the part used. Held in the mouth it cures the tooth-ach; for its heat and acrimony are greater than in pellitory of Spain, and it fills the mouth with water. Applied externally, bruised and mixed with honey and crumbled bread it is good for a quinsy.
