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passage, but they became, nevertheless, Involved in repeated 

 trouble with the Dutch, which was not finally settled until the 

 close of the Napoleonic wars. 



One result of this struggle of four centuries was the steady re- 

 duction in price of the spices. The producers received more, and 

 the greater supply brought down the selling price in Europe. 

 Instead of a profit of a thousand-fold, or even more, merchants 

 had to be contented with a reasonable gain. With the fabulous 

 profits of the old trade gone, spices were no longer a cause of 

 bloodshed, piracy, and war, and during the last century the spice 

 industry has lost its romance and has settled down into a respect- 

 able position in the commerce of the world. 



Of the numerous kinds of plants which are or have been used 

 as spices, only seven are of sufficient importance in this country 

 to require special mention here. 



The clove, Eugenia caryophyllara, belongs to the Myrtle Fam- 

 ily, a group noted for the possession of aromatic properties. It 

 is probably a native of the Molucca Islands. The spice is pro- 

 duced by the fiower-buds, which are picked before opening and 

 dried. The two chief sources of cloves today are the island of 

 Penang, a British colony north of Singapore, producing about lo 

 per cent, of the world's supply, and the island of Zanzibar, off 

 the east coast of Africa, producing about 90 per cent. 



The nutmeg, Myristica moschata, belongs to a small group 

 known as the Nutmeg Family. It is likewise a native of the Ma- 

 layan region, and our chief supply still comes from the Dutch 

 island of Banda. It is also extensively cultivated in Grenada, of 

 the West Indies. The nutmeg tree bears a fruit about the size 

 of a peach, which opens and exposes the single dark seed sur- 

 rounded by a crimson network. The latter, stripped from the 

 seed and dried, is known to us as mace, while the seed itself, 

 after the husk is removed and the kernel dried, becomes our fami- 

 liar nutmeg. 



Cinnamon is the bark of the cinnamon tree, Cinnamomum 

 zeylanicum, a native of Ceylon and a member of the Laurel 

 Family, a group also well known for its aromatic properties. In 

 cultivation, the plant is kept cut back to the ground, and sprouts 

 two years old are used as a source of the bark. This is removed 

 from the stem and dried into the form familiarly seen in our mar- 

 kets. Ceylon is still the chief source of cinnamon. 



