APPENDIX. 321 



Sim, and when this process is completed they are iisually shipped 

 to the place of export, where the outer shell is cracked, and the 

 nuts taken out, and packed in casks or cases for shipment. 



CLOVES. 



Cloves grow on trees from twenty to thirty feet high, hav- 

 ing a handsome pyramidal shape, with leaves that are large, 

 glossy, and ever-green. It is a native of Malacca, but is now 

 grown in nearly all of the Spice Islands of the Indian Ocean, the 

 larger part of the crop coming from Amboyna, in the island of 

 Ternate. Many years ago the Dutch undertook to control the 

 production of this spice and to confine its growth to this island ; 

 they, therefore, destroyed the clove trees in the other Spice Islands, 

 but the high prices which they demanded gradually led to its cul- 

 tivation in territory outside of their jurisdiction, and they after- 

 ward abandoned that policy. Still most of the cloves now pro- 

 duced are grown in Dutch territory, and the high prices which 

 have prevailed during the last year or two have been attributed 

 partly to a failure in the crop in Ternate and partly to the Acheen 

 war, which has considerably interfered with the supply usually 

 derived from Sumatra. The cloves of commerce are not, as many 

 suppose, the fruit of the clove tree, but are the jfower }mds. The 

 ripe fruit in shape resembles a small olive ; it is of a dark red 

 color, with one or two cells containing as many seeds, and it is 

 also aromatic to a certain extent, and sometimes appears in com- 

 merce in a dried state under the cutious name of " mother of 

 cloves." It is not nearly so pungent, however, as the flower stems. 

 Indeed, the whole tree — ^leaves, bark, and wood — seems to be 

 impregnated in some degree with the strong, distinctive clove 

 flavor ; but the flower buds are the principal commercial product 

 of the tree. "When first gathered, they are of reddish color, 

 biit in the drying process, which is generally partly done by wood 

 fires and partly in the sun, they turn a deep brown color, as they 

 are when they reach us in America. Although the tree grows 

 wild to some extent, it is regularly cultivated in plantations, the 

 plants being set some ten or fifteen feet apart and carefully pruned 

 and cared for. 

 21 



