PIPE, a musical instrument, various in kind. (See the articles Music and Organ.) Without entering into useless details regarding the ancient αυ^Kοι and tibiae, we may mention that Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, gives representations of the pipe and tabor, as used in England in the fourteenth century to accompany a dancing dog, a cock on stilts, a horse rearing, &c. From the drawings we cannot ascertain the nature of the pipe represented. We may, however, suppose it to have been similar to the galoubet used in France, along with the tabor, from a very remote period. This galoubet is a small instrument of the flageolet kind. Its use, for more than the last two centuries, has been confined to Provence. It has only three finger-holes, and is played with the left hand, whilst the right beats the tabor, which is attached to the performer. The compass of the galoubet is two octaves and a tone from D on the third line of the treble clef up to E in altissimo. Great skill is required to bring out all the sounds of its compass. Some of the players on this small and imperfect instrument are said to be so dexterous as to be able to perform upon it very difficult pieces of music composed for other instruments, such as the violin, &c. It is always accompanied by the tabor, which is a small drum of a cylindrical form, and rather longer and narrower in its relative proportions than the common drum.

Pipe, in building and other employments or arts, a canal, or conduit, for the conveyance of water and other liquids. Pipes for water, water-engines, and the like, are usually of lead, iron, earth, or wood; the latter being usually made of oak or elder. Those of iron are cast in forges, and their usual length is about two feet and a half; several of these being commonly fastened together by means of four screws at each end, with leather or old hat between them to stop the water. Those of earth are made by the potters, and are fitted into one another, one end being always made wider than the other. To join them the closer, and prevent their breaking, they are covered with tow and pitch; their length being usually about that of the iron pipes. The wooden pipes are trees bored with large iron augres, of different sizes, beginning with a less, and then proceeding with a larger successively; the first being pointed, the rest being formed like spoons, increasing in diameter from one to six inches and more. See Boring. Pipe, Pipa, in Law, is a roll in the exchequer, called also the great roll. Pipe- Office is an office in which a person, called the clerk of the pipe, makes out leases of crown-lands, by warrant from the lord-treasurer, or commissioners of the treasury, or the chancellor of the exchequer. The clerk of the pipe also makes out all accounts of sheriffs, &c. and gives the accountants their quietus est. Piper, Pepper, a genus of plants belonging to the diandria class. There are twenty species of piper, of which the most remarkable is the siriboa, with oval, heart-shaped, nerved leaves, and reflexed spikes. This is the plant which produces the pepper so much used in food. It is a shrub, the root of which is small, fibrous, and flexible; and it rises into a stem, which requires a tree or prop to support it. Its wood has the same sort of knots as the vine; and when it is dry, it exactly resembles the vine-branch. The leaves, which have a strong smell and a pungent taste, are of an oval shape; but they diminish towards the extremity, and terminate in a point. From the flower-buds, which are white, and are sometimes placed in the middle and sometimes at the extremity of the branches, are produced small berries resembling those of the currant-tree. Each of these contains between twenty and thirty corns of pepper. They are commonly gathered in October, and exposed to the sun seven or eight days. The fruit, which was green at first, and afterwards red, when stripped of its covering assumes the appearance it has when we see it. The largest, heaviest, and least shrivelled, is the best.

The pepper plant flourishes in the islands of Java, Sumatra, and Ceylon, and more particularly on the Malabar coast. It is not sown, but planted; and great nicety is required in the choice of the shoots. It produces no fruit until the end of three years; but bears so plentifully the three succeeding years, that some plants yield between six and seven pounds of pepper. The bark then begins to shrink; and the shrub declines so fast that in twelve years’ time it ceases bearing.

The culture of pepper is not difficult. It is sufficient to plant it in a rich soil, and carefully to pull up the weeds that grow in great abundance round its roots, especially the first three years. As the sun is highly necessary to the growth of the pepper plant, when it is ready to bear, the trees that support it must be lopped, to prevent their shade from injuring the fruit. When the season is over, it is proper to crop the head of the plant. Without this precaution there would be too much wood, and little fruit.

The piper amalago, or black pepper, and the piper ine-quale, or long pepper of Jamaica, with some other species, are indigenous, and known by the names of joint-wood, or peppery elders. The first bears a small spike·, on which are attached a number of small seeds of the size of mustard. The whole of the plant has the exact taste of the East India black pepper. The long-pepper bush grows taller than the amalago. The leaves are broad, smooth, and shining; and the fruit is similar to the long pepper of the shops, but smaller. The common people in Jamaica season their messes with the black pepper. To preserve both, the fruit may be slightly scalded when green, then dried, and wrapped in paper.