th.
Cayenne is the seat of the government of French Guiana, and was formerly
a penal settlement for political offenders. Food as well as clothing is
exorbitantly dear, the only cheap articles of consumption being bread
and French wines. The temperature of Cayenne is between 76 deg. and 88
deg. Fahr. throughout the year; but the heat is tempered by easterly
winds. Between December and March a north wind blows, unfavourable to
weak constitutions. Yellow and other fevers often attack the
inhabitants of the town, but the climate, though moist, is as a whole
healthy. (See GUIANA.)

CAYENNE PEPPER (GUINEA PEPPER, SPANISH PEPPER, CHILLY), a preparation
from the dried fruit of various species of _Capsicum_, a genus of the
natural order Solanaceae. The true peppers are members of a totally
distinct order, Piperaceae. The fruits of plants of the genus _Capsicum_
have all a strong, pungent flavour. The capsicums bear a greenish-white
flower, with a star-shaped corolla and five anthers standing up in the
centre of the flower like a tube, through which projects the slender
style. The pod-like fruit consists of an envelope at first fleshy and
afterwards leathery, within which are the spongy pulp and several seeds.
The plants are herbaceous or shrubby; the leaves are entire, and
alternate, or in pairs near one another; the flowers are solitary and do
not arise in the leaf-axils. There are about thirty species, natives of
Central and South America. They are now grown in various parts of the
world, both for the sake of the fruit and for ornament. In England the
annual sorts are sown from March to the middle of April under a frame.
They can be planted out when 2 or 3 in. high, and in June may be
transferred to a light rich soil in the open garden. They flower in July
or August, and produce pods from August till the end of September. The
perennial and shrubby kinds may be wintered in a conservatory. Several
species or varieties are used to make cayenne pepper. The annual or
common capsicum (_C. annuum_), the Guinea pepper plant, was brought to
Europe by the Spaniards, and was grown in England in 1548. It is
indigenous to South America, but is now cultivated in India, Hungary,
Italy, Spain and Turkey, with the other species of capsicum. It is a
hardy herbaceous plant, which attains a height of 2 or 3 ft. There are
numerous cultivated forms, differing in the shape and colour of the pod,
which varies from more or less roundish to narro