CLOVES. 22] 
three descriptions are equally valuable as spices, the “ female” 
being considered fittest for the distillation of essential oil. The 
“Royal Clove” is a curious monstrosity which formerly had a 
great reputation as the “ Caryophyllum Regium” by reason of its 
rarity and the curious observations which were made respecting it*. 
It is a very small clove, distinguished by an abnormal number of 
sepals and by large bracts at the base of the tube of the calyx; 
the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly developed. 
The soil most suitable to the clove-tree is a dark loam, having a 
substratum of dark yellow earth intermixed with gravel. A sandy 
soil, a hard clay, and a wet ground in which sedges grow are to be 
avoided. The tree may be propagated either by setting the seeds, 
or by transplanting the young plants found in the clove gardens 
which have come up from self-sown seed. The plants raised by 
the first method, although luxuriant, are not thought to be so 
fruitful as the self-sown plants. 
In Amboyna it is thought best to set the young plants amongst 
other trees which shade them from the sun, and as the clove-trees 
grow up the other trees are removed, leaving here and there a few 
fruit-trees, such as the kanari and the cocoanut, The clove-trees 
must be kept pruned and care be taken that they are not choked 
with weeds ; failing these precautions the plants languish or de- 
generate into wild cloves. The health of the tree much depends 
on the nature of the soil and ground. 
“In Amboyna the harvest begins when the cloves begin to turn 
red. The ground beneath the trees is swept clean. The nearest 
clusters are taken off with the hand, and the more distant with the 
assistance of crooked sticks. As the boughs are tender, great care 
should be taken not to handle them roughly, as an injury would 
prevent them bearing for years. The curing of the cloves consists 
in placing them for some days on hurdles, where they are smoked 
by a slow wood-fire, which gives them a brown colour, and after- 
wards drying them in the sun, when they turn black. In some 
places they are scalded with hot water before being smoked, but 
this practice is not common. Such cloves as casually fall to the 
ground and are picked up in small quantities, the cultivators do 
* Rumphius, Hort. Amb. ii. xi. t. 2; also Hasskarl, Neuer Schlussel zu 
Rumph’s Hort. Amb. Halle, p. 166; Berg, in Linnza, 1854, p. 137; and Val- 
mont de Bomare, Dict. d’Hist. Nat. 1775, iii. p. 70. 
