88 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



a hundred years old. The fruit is like a large yellowish plum, 

 with a fleshy rind, which when fully ripe splits into two halves, 

 exposing the large brown nutmeg in the middle, enclosed in an 

 irregular coating of red mace, which runs in thick branching 

 lines over the nutmeg. The mace is separated from the nutmeg, 

 and both are dried and exported, the tree thus yielding two 

 spices, of which the mace is perhaps the more in demand, so 

 that some years ago an order was sent to a Ceylon planting 

 company from the London office, that they were to grow more 

 mace, and fewer nutmegs. The fleshy rind of the fruit makes 

 an excellent jelly. 



Cloves. The clove, Eugenia caryophyllata (or in the older 

 books Caryophyllus aromaticus), is also a native of the Moluccas, 

 and for a long time the Dutch were able to maintain a mono- 

 poly there, destroying the trees everywhere else. Finally, how- 

 ever, the French carried it to Cayenne, and from thence it got 

 to the West Indies, and now is all over the world. 



The plant is a small tree, about thirty feet high, and is 

 cultivated like the nutmeg, in loamy soil, not too near to the 

 sea, and up to elevations of perhaps 1500 feet. It begins 

 to yield at the sixth year. The spice is the unexpanded buds, 

 which occur in little clusters at the ends of the branches, and 

 are carefully knocked off with bamboos, or picked. They are 

 dried in the sun, and exported. 



Pimento, or Allspice. This plant, Pimenta officinalis, is 

 a native of Jamaica and other West Indian islands, but the 

 trade in it is practically entirely in the hands of Jamaica. The 

 plant grows into a small tree, and the unripe fruits are picked 

 and dried. They are of the size of a small pea, and have a 

 sort of combination of the flavours of cinnamon, cloves, and 

 nutmegs, whence the name allspice. 



From the leaves of the pimento, and from an allied species 

 of Pimenta, P. acris, an essential oil bay-oil is distilled, and 

 this is afterwards mixed with rum to form the well-known 

 bay-rum. 



Ginger. This plant, Zingiber officinale, is a native of 

 south-eastern Asia, but is now more cultivated in Jamaica than 



