IV 



CLOVES 173 



This destruction of the bud leaves and the growing 

 point of the branch seem sufficient to account for the 

 failure of this tree to produce flowers when badly 

 attacked. The fine clove trees of Penang and Province 

 Wellesley are not grown under shade, but fully exposed 

 to the hot sun and its brilliant light, being cultivated in 

 the same way and in the same positions as the nutmeg, 

 but they are hardly at all attacked and are not, as a rule, 

 injured by the parasite. I attribute this phenomenon to 

 the action of the sea-air, as I have noticed that where 

 the clove trees in Penang are away from the sea by 

 the configuration of the ground, so that the sea can- 

 not be seen from where they are growing, these trees are 

 attacked and die ; and again, trees planted in various 

 parts of the Botanic Gardens, and in other districts of 

 Singapore where no sea-air can possibly reach them, 

 soon become badly affected and die. This was notably 

 the case in an estate of nutmegs and cloves planted inland 

 some years ago, where when the clove trees had reached 

 the fruiting stage they died without flowering at all. 

 Badly diseased trees may live for many years before they 

 actually succumb. Trees over thirty years old in the 

 Singapore Botanic Gardens are still alive, though most 

 have never produced flowers. The appearance of a sick 

 tree is quite striking. Instead of being densely covered 

 with rich dark-green leaves it is thin ; many boughs 

 bear only a few leaves at the end ; the whole tree has 

 a birch-broom-like appearance (see plate). 



The saying that the clove tree must see the sea is 

 probably based on its requirements of sea -air, for 

 without this the plant is almost always a failure. It 

 cannot be said to have ever been a great success in 

 the rather flat though undulating inland of Singapore, 

 nor have I ever seen it well -grown elsewhere inland 

 at any distance from the sea breezes. In such spots 

 it seems always to succumb to the Cephaleurus, sooner 

 or later. 



In mild cases spraying with Bordeaux mixture 

 is decidedly beneficial, but this treatment needs to 



