94 THE FAEMER AT HOME. 



South America, where they have since been cultivated with great suc- 

 cess. At a certain season of the year, the clove-tree produces a vast 

 profusion of flowers. When fresh gathered, cloves will yield, on 

 pressure, a fragrant, thick, and reddish oil ; and, by distillation, a 

 limpid essential oil. Oil of cloves is used by many persons, though 

 very improperly, for curing the toothache ; since, from its pungent 

 quality, it is apt to corrode the gums and injure the adjacent teeth. 

 When the tooth is carious, and will admit of it, a bruised clove is 

 much to be preferred. 



CLOVE TREE. A tree about twenty feet in height, bearing 

 the aromatic fruit called clove ; this tree has grown in greatest abun- 

 dance in Ternate, an island of the Indian Ocean, being the principal 

 of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. In this island, which has been 

 long celebrated for its beauty and healthfulness, the clove trees grew 

 in such plenty, that they in some measure lessened their own value. 

 For this reason the Dutch resolved to cut down the forests, and thus 

 to raise the price of the commodity. But they soon had reason to 

 repent of their avarice ; for such a change ensued by cutting down the 

 trees, that the whole island, from being healthy and delightful, hav- 

 ing lost its charming shades, became extremely sickly, and has 

 actually continued so to this day. 



COACH. A vehicle for commodious travelling, suspended on 

 leathers, and moving wheels. In England, and throughout Europe, 

 the coaches are drawn by horses, except in Spain, where they use 

 mules. In a part of the East, especially the dominions of the great 

 Mogul, their coaches are drawn by oxen. In Denmark they some- 

 times yoke reindeer in their coaches ; though this is rather for curiosity 

 than use. The coachman is ordinarily placed on a seat raised 

 before the body of the coach. But the Spanish policy has displaced 

 him in that country by a royal ordinance ; on occasion of the duke 

 d'Olivares, who found that a very important secret, whereon he had 

 conferred in his coach, had been overheard and revealed by his coach- 

 man ; since that time the place of the Spanish coachman is the same 

 with that of the French stage-coachman, viz. on the first horse on 

 the left. 



COAL. Coal of greater or less quantities, and of different quali- 

 ties, is found in most countries in Holland, Germany, Saxony, Portu- 

 gal, Switzerland, Sweden, China, Japan, New Holland, and in North 

 and South America. BufFon states, that in his time, there were no 

 less than four hundred collieries worked in France. The deepest 

 mine in the world is near Namur ; it is stated to be two thousand 

 four hundred feet, or nearly half a mile, in depth. Coal is seldom 

 found on high mountains, but usually, the localities are in hilly 

 situations, most commonly under a stratum composed of sand clay, or 

 argillite, splitting into layers, forming either slates, or a substance 

 called shivers, according to its fracture. Coal is found on hills in 





