CLOVES 117 



Like other spices, allspice is used in medicine, but its chief 

 use is as a condiment. It is interesting to read that Russia 

 in former times used to buy enormous quantities of allspice 

 from Jamaica to flavour her black rye bread, but that during 

 one of her wars she found that she could get a similar flavour 

 from another plant growing in her own country, and she 

 bought no more allspice from Jamaica. 



-CULTIVATION. Allspice requires heat, but not too much 

 moisture, and it likes a well- drained limestone, or loamy soil, 

 and where these conditions obtain it will grow well. People 

 used to imagine that the seeds would not germinate if sown in 

 the ordinary manner, and that a pimento plantation must 

 spring up of its own accord ; but nowadays it is found that, 

 when the seeds are properly washed and dried, they grow 

 extremely well when planted in the ordinary manner. 



The trees begin to yield when they are about seven years 

 old, but they are not in perfection until they have reached 

 their twentieth year. 



SOURCES OF SUPPLY. The pimento is produced in other 

 tropical countries, but Jamaica is the only one which exports 

 it in any considerable quantity. 



CLOVES. Our word clove is derived from the Spanish clavo, 

 which means a nail. The Spaniards and Portuguese gave the 

 bud this name because of its likeness to a nail in shape. 



The cloAje-tree (Eugenia caryophyllata) , like the pimento, 

 belongs to the myrtle family, and in many respects these 

 two beautiful trees resemble one another. They both grow 

 to about the same height, thirty or forty feet, they are both 

 evergreen, and have a pale, smooth, greyish bark, and long 

 dark-green, shining leaves ; but the clove-tree is rather conical 

 in shape, its lower branches being much longer than its upper 

 ones. The bunches of flowers in both trees consist of several 

 stalks, with blossoms, arranged in sets of three, at the end 

 of each stalk. 



The calyx of the clove-tree flower is about half an inch long 

 and is very solid ; it gradually changes from green to bright 



