been produced, from the earliest records, so abundantly, that in exchange for their spicy produce, the inhabitants were enabled, before the intrusion of the Europeans into their country, to procure for themselves the productions which they required of almost every other region. Although Europeans have for more than two thousand years known the use of this spice, yet little more than three hundred years back they were ignorant whence it was obtained.

The

Persians, Arabians, and Egyptians formerly brought cloves and nutmegs to the ports in the Mediterranean, and hither the Venetians and Genoese resorted to buy the spices of India, until the Portuguese, in 1511, discovered the country of their production. This nation did not, however, long enjoy the fruits of its discovery; the Dutch soon drove them from the Moluccas, and for a long time retained a very strict monopoly over the productions of these islands. It is said that they destroyed the clove trees growing on the other islands, and confined their culture wholly to Amboyna. They allotted to the inhabitants four thousand parcels of land, on each of which it was expected that one hundred and twentyfive trees should be cultivated; and in 1720 a law was passed compelling the natives to make up this number: there were in consequence five hundred thousand clove-trees planted in this small island, each of these on an average produced annually more than two pounds of cloves, so that the aggregate produce weighed more than a million of pounds. sequently to this period, the policy of the Dutch somewhat relaxed, and the tree has been suffered to grow on other islands, and even to be carried to the West Indies; where, however, it does not appear until very lately to have succeeded. Sir Joseph Banks introduced it into this country about 1797,

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but of course it is raised here only as a mere ornament or curiosity of the hothouse.

The clove is a handsome tree, somewhat like the bay tree in some of its characters, though the leaves more nearly resemble those of the laurel. The flowers of the clove grow in bunches at the very extremity of the branches; when they first ap pear, which is at the beginning of the rainy season, they are in the form of elongated greenish buds, from the extremity of which the corolla is expanded, which is of a delicate peach-blossom colour. When the corolla begins to fade, the calyx turns yellow, and then red: the calyces, with the embryo seed, are in this stage of their growth beaten from the tree, and after being dried in the sun, are what are known as the cloves of commerce. If the fruit be allowed to remain on the tree after arriving at this period, the calyx gradually swells, the seed enlarges, and the pungent properties of the clove are in great part dissipated. Each berry contains only one seed, which is oval, dark coloured, and of a considerable size. It is a long time before a clove-tree yields any profit to the cultivator; it rarely producing fruit till eight or nine years after being first planted.

The whole tree is highly aromatic, and the footstalks of the leaves have nearly the same pungency as the calyx of the flowers. 66 Clove-trees," says

Sir T. Raffles, "as an avenue to a residence are perhaps unrivalled-their noble height, the beauty of their form, the luxuriance of their foliage, and above all, the spicy fragrance with which they perfume the air, produce, on driving through a long line of them, a degree of exquisite pleasure only to be enjoyed in the clear light atmosphere of these latitudes."

Cloves contain a very large proportion of essential oil, larger perhaps than any other plant or parts of a

plant. This oil is extremely pungent, and is one of the few essential oils which is specifically heavier than water. It is usually procured by distillation, but when the cloves are newly gathered it may be obtained by pressure. A part is often so taken, and the cloves, which are thereby rendered of little value, are fraudulently mixed with sound ones; but the robbed cloves are easily detected by their pale colour, shrivelled appearance, and want of flavour.

The pungent and aromatic virtues of the clove reside in this essential oil, combined with the resinous matter of the spice; but it does not appear that these qualities are absolutely necessary to the growth or fructification of the tree. To give to this its greatest value, it must, however, be cultivated in a situation where they can be elaborated in the greatest quantity. Its profitable growth is therefore limited to a very narrow range of temperature and climate; as the clove loses its flavour if the situation be too moist or too dry, too near the sea, or too much elevated above its level. Though the tree be found in the larger islands of Eastern Asia and in Cochin China, it has there little or no flavour. The Moluccas seem to be the only places where the clove comes to perfection without cultivation.

This tree is so great an absorbent of moisture that no herbage will grow under its branches; while the cloves, when gathered, if placed in a heap near a vessel of water, are found very much to have increased their weight at the end of only a few hours, in consequence of the large portion of water which they have attracted and imbibed. It is said that both the grower and trader in cloves avail themselves of the knowledge of this fact, and since this spice is always sold by weight, thus give a factitious value to their goods.

Nutmeg-Myristica moschata.

The NUTMEG-Myristica moschata-is likewise a native of the Moluccas, and after the possession of these islands by the Dutch, was, like the clove, jea lously made an object of strict monopoly. Actuated by this narrow-minded policy, the Dutch endea voured to extirpate the nutmeg-tree from all the islands except Banda; but it is said that the woodpigeon has often been the unintentional means of thwarting this monopolizing spirit by conveying and dropping the fruit beyond these limits; thus disseminated, the plant has been always more widely diffused than the clove. This tree grows in several islands in the Eastern Ocean, in the southern part of both peninsulas of India, and it has been introduced into the Mauritius and some other places. It was for a long time supposed that though the plant

could be transplanted, the peculiar aroma of the nut, which gives to the tree its commercial value, was weakened, if not entirely lost, when this was removed from its native soil, and that, as a spice-producing tree, it, as well as the clove, was confined to the same narrow locality to which the clove was said to be restricted. In Sumatra, however, it has been successfully cultivated to a large extent. Sir Thomas Raffles gives an account of the plantation at Bencoolen in 1820: "Out of the number of one hundred thou sand nutmeg-trees," he writes, "one fourth are in fullbearing, and although their culture may be more expensive, their luxuriance and produce are considered fully equal to those of the Moluccas." An attempt has been made at Trinidad to naturalize there the clove and the nutmeg; and, very recently, samples of these spices produced in that island have been transmitted to England for the inspection and approval of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. The opinions of the best judges have been taken with respect to their quality as compared with the Oriental produce, and, in consequence of a most favourable report, the gold medal of the Society has been awarded to the western cultivator of these spices; while sanguine hopes are entertained that the clove and the nutmeg will one day be perfectly acclimatized in the tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere. The nutmeg-tree, as well as the clove, was introduced into this country by Sir Joseph Banks as an ornamental hot-house plant.

Two spices are obtained from the nutmeg-treenutmeg, which is the kernel of the fruit; and mace, which is the membranous tunic or covering immediately investing the thin black shell in which the nutmeg is contained; the whole is enveloped by the external portion of the fruit in the same manner as the stone of a peach is by the pulp. This tree is