EUGENIA 



CARYOPHYLLATA 



Cloves 



THE CLOVE PLANT 



Amboyna 

 Names. 



Company were trading in cloves (Birdwood and Foster, E.I.C. First Letter 

 Book, 36), and a little later we read of the cultivation being rapidly ex- 

 tended all over the tropics. Rheede does not, however, apparently describe 

 .the plant, so that very possibly it was not being cultivated in India during 1686 

 the date of his great work the Hortus Malabar icua. About that time, how- 

 ever, the spice was an important article of trade with India. Ta vernier (Travels 

 Ind., 1676 (ed. Ball), ii., 17), for example, discusses the Dutch monopoly 

 and the clove traffic of Surat. \Cf. Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 30-4 ; 

 Thevenot, Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 16.87, pt. iii., 109.] 



Rumphius figures and describes the clove plant (Herb. Amb., 1750, ii., 1-5, 

 t. 1 ), and gives a long list of its vernacular names. He lived and died in Amboyna 

 and was, in all probability, familiar with every aspect of the clove plant and 

 trade. The Chinese, he says, called it thenghio (= sweet-smelling nails) ; the 

 modern Malay name is tsjancke and the old Malay name bugulawan in Amboyna 

 it is buhulawan ; in Ternate boholawa, and in Tidora gomode. Filet (Plantkundig 

 Woordenboek) gives it the name bobolawa. Crawfurd. (I.e. 101) says, " It is very 

 difficult to understand how the clove could have come first to be used as a condi- 

 ment by foreign nations, considering the well-ascertained fact that it has never 

 been used as such, and indeed hardly in any other way, by the inhabitants of the 

 countries which produce it." He then proceeds to explain that the earliest 

 names in the Moluccas for the clove are connected with the foreigners who came 

 Chinese Names, to their shores to procure the spice. The most frequent name, he says, is cangkek, 

 which has not the sound of a native word, but is a corruption of the Chinese 

 tkeng-hia. There seems no doubt the Chinese procured the clove from its island 

 home for several centuries before it had reached Europe. There are records that 

 point to this traffic as early as 260 B.C. Crawfurd, however, mentions none of 

 the names given by Rumphius, but if these be actually the local names of the 

 tree they have not apparently accompanied the clove into the commerce of the 

 world. Little astonishment need, however, be expressed at these names not 

 having accompanied the clove, when it is recollected that it was not regarded 

 by the inhabitants of the " spice islands " as of any value until the Chinese desired 

 to be supplied with the " little sweet-scented nails." In that circumstance 

 alone lay the interest taken by the people of Moluccas in the plant, and " nail" 

 or " clove " became its name in most countries. 



Sonnerat (Voy. Nouv. Quin., 1776, 195, tt. 119-20) tells us that he found 

 the clove being grown in New Guinea, and it is well known that in 1770 M. Poivre, 

 of the Isle of Bourbon, sent M. Prevost to Ceram in order to procure live plants 

 of both the clove and the nutmeg. This enterprise was completely successful, 

 and shortly after the plants flourished so well in their new home that seedlings 

 were sent to Cayenne about 1784, and in an incredibly short time the plantations 

 were extended and cloves regularly sent into market of such quality that they 

 were pronounced equal, if not superior to those of the " spice islands." Very 

 shortly after the date mentioned the clove was carried to the West Indies 

 (Dominica in 1789), in fact throughout the tropical world, and was even culti- 

 vated by Sir Joseph Banks at Kew in 1797. It had been successfully accli- 

 matised in Zanzibar and Pemba. Migration became imperative, through the 

 short-sighted policy of the Dutch, who sought to secure for themselves an 

 absolute monopoly in the world's supply. For this purpose they ruthlessly 

 destroyed the trees in all the islands except those specially set apart by them- 

 selves for clove-production. Having trampled on the rights of the people, 

 retribution became a natural consequence. It is not much to be wondered at, 

 therefore, that when in time a more liberal policy prevailed, the new countries of 

 clove-production had so securely established their positions that a restoration 

 or concentration of the traffic in the original home of the clove became an im- 

 possibility. 



Cultivation. Cloves are the dried unexpanded flower-buds of this 

 tree. The corolla forms a ball on the top between the four teeth of the 

 calyx, and the stalk is the immature ovary. They are at first green, then 

 turn yellow, and finally bright pink or scarlet. In this last stage they 

 are ready to be picked. If allowed to remain longer on the tree the 

 flowers expand, become fertilised, and the stalk of the clove then develops 

 into a succulent purple-coloured berry containing one or two seeds. 

 This is known technically as the " mother clove." These are sown in 



528 



Migration. 



Betribution. 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Bud. 



' Mother Clove.' 



