Again the birds will weave their nests,
And come and go on airy wing;
And one will nurse her little guests
And one will watch and sweetly sing.
The bushes small and towering trees
Their leaves of living green will don,
And, swaying in the restless breeze,
Will laugh because old Winter’s gone.
—George Gee.
[Illustration: ]
Description of Plate—A, twig with staminate flowers; B, fruit-bearing
twig; 1, upper portion of staminate inflorescence; 2, staminate
flower; 3, fruit; 4, 5, 6, 7, ovary; 8, 9, seed.
CUBEBS.
(_Piper cubeba_ L.)
Aromatics, as cubebs, cinnamons and nutmegs, are usually put into crude
poor wines to give them more oily spirits.—Floyer, “The Humors.”
The cubeb-yielding plant is not unlike the pepper plant and belongs to
the same family (Piperaceae). The two resemble each other in general
habits in the form of inflorescence and in the fruiting.
Cubebs were known to Arabian physicians as early as the ninth century,
who employed them as a diuretic in kidney troubles. It was also known at
that time that Java was the home of the plant. At one time it was
believed that the Carpesium of ancient writers was cubebs, but this is
now generally disbelieved. Edrisi states that cubeb found its way to
Aden about 1153. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was
employed medicinally in Spain. Originally it was doubtless employed as a
spice, similar to pepper. Mariano Sanudo (1306) classed it among the
rare and costly spices. Hildegard referred to the soothing properties of
cubeb. In the thirteenth century cubeb is mentioned among the import
articles of London. About the same time it found its way into other
European countries, notably Germany. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century cubeb disappeared almost entirely from medical practice. About
1820 English physicians of Java again began to employ it quite
extensively.
As in the case of black pepper, the fruit is collected before maturity
and dried. The fruit is about the size of the pepper, but has a
stalk-like prolongation which distinguishes it. The pericarp becomes
much shriveled and wrinkled on drying.
Cubebs are cultivated in special plantations or with coffee for which
they provide shade by spreading from the trees which serve as their
support. Their cultivation is said to be easy.
Cubebs have a pungent, bitter taste and a characteristic aromatic odor.
It cannot readily be confounded with any of the other more common
spices. Its use as a spice is almost wholly discontinued. Its use in
medicine is also waning, since it evidently has only slight medicinal
properties. It is used in nasal and other catarrhal affections. Cubeb
cigarettes are used in the treatment of nasal catarrh. It has a marked
influence upon the kidneys, causing irritation and increased activity,
and as already indicated it is therefore a diuretic. It is, however,
harmful, rather than beneficial, in acute inflammatory conditions of
these organs.
Albert Schneider.