IV 



CLOVES 159 



also met with under the forms of Garophul, Karpophul, 

 and Garofalo, it is probably a word of Asiatic origin 

 Hellenised. 



Rumphius, in the Herbarium Amboinense, gives 

 the words karumpfel, calafur, or caraful as Arabic 

 words from which caryophyllus may be derived. 



It is indeed probable that the Arab traders, who 

 doubtless introduced it to Europe, introduced the 

 Arabic name with it. 



Garcia da Orta, in the Historia aromatum, says 

 that neither Dioscorides nor Galen mention it, but 

 Kosmas Indicopleustes, in A.D. 547, mentions it as an 

 import from China to Ceylon, and says it was thence 

 imported to other parts of the world. It seems, there- 

 fore, that the Chinese, who traded much with the Eastern 

 islands, were the first to discover and use the spice. 



From the eighth century onwards it was regularly 

 imported into Europe, but was very costly, being valued 

 in 1265 at from 10s. to 12s. a pound. 



Marco Polo, like other writers of his date, describes 

 it as being obtained from Java, and also from Kaindu, 

 a part of China. 



Nicolo Conti, a Venetian merchant (1424 to 1448), 

 was the first to discover the real source of the spice, 

 saying that it comes from Banda ; but more correct 

 localisation was obtained by the Portuguese in the 

 sixteenth century, and Pigafetta described the plant 

 more fully in 1521. Garcia da Orta says that in his 

 time it was not cultivated anywhere, but that it grew 

 in the Moluccas, in Gilolo, and also in Ceylon and 

 some other places, but it was not so productive any- 

 where as it was in the Moluccas. Probably, like Marco 

 Polo, he mistook the ports whence it was shipped, 

 Ceylon and the other places, for the home of the plant. 

 It was exported to Malacca, as were the other Eastern 

 spices, for shipment to Europe. The Portuguese held 

 control of the Spice Islands till 1605, when they were 

 expelled by the Dutch, and by this time the plant had 

 been introduced into Amboyna, Ley Timor, and Uliasser 



