FRUCTUS PIMENTO. 287 



teration of ground cloves would be revealed by the microscope. 



3. Royal Cloves — Under this name or GaryopltyUvm reglam, a 

 curious monstrosity of the clove was formerly held in the highent 

 reputation, on account of its rarity and the strange stories told respect- 

 ing it/ ^ Specimens in our possession show it to be a very small clove, 

 distinguished by an abnormal number of sepals and large bractis at the 

 base of the calyx-tube, the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly 

 developed. 



FRUCTUS PIMENTiE, 



Semen Amomi; Pimento, Allspice, Jamaica Pepper ; F. Poivre de la 

 Jamaique, Piment ties Anglais, Toute'epice ; G. Kelksnpfefer, 

 NelkenJcopfe, Neugewurz. 



Botanical Origin — Pimenta r>jfficinalis Lindley^ {Myvhis Pimenfa 



everPTeen tree, 2rovi 



30 feet in height, with a trunk 2 feet in circumference, common 



West India Islands. In 



hills near the sea, and is especially plentiful on the north side of th 



c 



island. 



History — The high value placed on the spices of India sufficiently 

 exj)lains the interest with which aromatic and pungent plants were 

 regarded by the early explorers of the New World ; while the eager 

 desire to obtain these lucrative commodities is shown by the names 



/_J _ y^ • ^-^ ^ im m" t t A 1l 1 



uynium 



Among the s2Dices thus brought to the notice of Europe were tiie 

 Httle dry berries of certain trees of the myrtle tribe, wliich ha<l some 

 resemblance in shaj^e and flavour to peppercorns, and hence were 

 named Pimienta? corrupted to Pime'iyta or Pimento. It was doubt- 

 less a drug of this kind, if not our veritable allspice, that was given to 

 Clusius in ICOl by Garret, a druggist of London, r.nd described and 

 figured by the former in his lAher Exoticomm* A few years later it 

 began to be imported into England, being, as Parkinson' saj 

 " obtruded for Amomum. " (Bound Cardamom), so that " some more 

 audacious than wise . . . put it in their compositions instead of tlie 



right. 



Chiapas, now the south-eastern department of Mexico, bordering 

 ^uatemala. Redi states that the spice was also called Phnievfa dc. 

 J^avasco from the adjoining department of Tabasco. According to 



Nov. 27, 1873, the announcement of the Valmont de Bomare, Diet. dTIist. Nat. iii. 



jale of ]_05Q ^ ^^ Mother Cloves at 2d. (1775) 70. , ^ . 



w 3tZ. per lb., besides 4,200 packages of 'Fig. in Bentley and Tnmen, Acd. 



ove Stalks at d,L to 4<Z.' per lb. Plants, part 20 (1877) 



•* KuniDhiiia in »,,=, i^^4-^^ r a™k«;.,» ^ Pimienta, the Spanish for j^^lW^'t }^ 



derived from jiigmenlum., a general name in 



Latin for spkery. — MalagncUa 



itumphius in liis letter from Amboina, 

 2«Pt- 20, 1690, to Dr. Schrock, in Ephe- 



"n^'-idea Acad. C(m. Leopold. Decur. iii. .. -r, ^ ,• r- , 



"ankfurt and Leipzig. 1700. p. 308, with (see article Graua Paradisi) is also a _ 



,,^^e.— Also Runiphiua, Herb. Amh. ii. which has been tran.sferre<l by tlie Spaniards 



'^'42) n. tab. 2.— See also Hasskarl, r.nd Portuguese to the drug under notice. 



J^ejter Schlimel zii Bumph's Herb. Amb., •* Lib. i. c. 17. 



"^"" '""" - -^ . !i Theatnuii Bntankum (1640) 



e, 1866; Berg, Linyicea, 1854. 137 



