286 MYRTACE^. 



hands of the Dutch Government, which, by its restrictive policy, 

 assumed practically the position of growers, disposing of their produce 

 through the Netherlands Trading Company at auctions held in Holland 

 twice a year. This system having been abolished in 1872, has proved 

 disastrous to the trade it was designed to protect, and to such a 

 degree that the produce of cloves in the Moluccas is but a tenth of 

 what it was in the early days of their intercourse with Europe. The 

 crop of the four islands, Amboyna, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, 

 the only Moluccas in which the tree is cultivated, was reckoned in 

 1854 as 510,9121b. 



The export of cloves from Java in 1871 was 1397 peculs^ 

 (186,226 1b.). The French island of Reunion which from 1825 to 

 1849 used to produce annually as much as 800,000 kilogrammes 

 (1,764,571 lb.), now yields almost none, owing chiefly to the frequent 

 hurricanes. 



Uses — As a remedy, cloves are unimportant, though in the form of 

 infusion or distilled water they are useful in combination with other 

 medicines. The essential oil which sometimes relieves toothache is 

 a frequent ingredient of pill-masses. The chief consumption of 

 cloves is as a culinary spice. 



Substitutes — 1. Clove Stalks — Festuccelvel Stipites Caryophylli, in 

 French Griffes de Oirofie, in German Nelkenstiele, were an article of 

 import into Europe during the middle ages, when they were chiefly 

 known by their low Latin name of fasti, or the Italian bastaroni. 

 Thus under the statutes of Pisa,'-^ A.D. 1305, duty was levied not only 

 on cloves (garofali), but also on Folia et fusti garofalorum. Pego- 

 lotti^ a little later names both as being articles of trade at Constantinople. 

 Clove Leaves are enumerated^ as an import into Palestine in the 

 12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the drugs sold 

 at Frankfort® about the year 1450; we are not aware that they 

 are used in modem times. 



As to Clove Stalks, they are still a considerable object of trade, 

 especially from Zanzibar, where they are called by the natives Vikunia. 

 They taste tolerably aromatic, and yield 4 to 6'4 per cent, of volatile 

 levogyre oil ; they are used for adulterating the Ground Cloves sold by 

 grocers. Such an admixture may be detected by the microscope, 

 especially if the powder after treatment with potash be examined in 

 glycerin. If clove stalks have been ground, thick-walled or stone- 

 cells will be found in the powder ; such cells do not occur in cloves. 

 Powdered allspice is also an adulterant of powdered cloves ; it also 

 contains stone-cells, but in addition numerous starch-granules which 

 are entirely wanting in cloves. 



2. Mother Cloves, Anthophylli — are the fruits of the clove-tree, 

 and are ovate-oblong Ijerries about an inch in length and much less rich 

 in essential oil than cloves. Though occasionally seen in the London 

 drug sales in some quantity, they are not an article of regular import." 



^ Consular Reports, Aug. 1873. 952. * Becueil des Historiens des Croisades, 



2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti della cittd di Lois, ii. (1843) 173. 

 Pisa dal xii. al xiv. secolo, iii. (1857) ^Fliickiger, Die Frankfurter Lisfe, Halle, 



106. 1873. 11. 38. 



8 See p. 235, note 2. * We find in the fortnightly price cur- 



rent of a London drug-broker under date 



