PIMENTO, OR ALLSPICE. 



503 



Mauritius. — It was from Eeunion that the vanilla orchid was carried 

 to Mauritius. I have not the returns of the exports for the last few 

 years, but the shipments from that island up to 1874, with the declared 

 values, were as follows : 



Year. 



Quantity. 



Value. 



Year. 



Quantity. 



Value. 





lbs. 



£ 





lbs. 



£ 



1865 



5,025 



1,520 



' 1870 



4,986 



2,860 



1866 



4,427 



1,456 



1871 



4,919 



3,345 



1867 



5,184 



1,488 



1872 



7,563 



10,560 



1868 



4,014 



964 



1873 



5,546 



12,216 



1869 ■ 



5,351 



2,004 



1874 



13,435 



33,061 



A small quantity of that shipped is not raised in the island, but 

 is imported produce. 



There is a somewhat extensive cultivation of vanilla in Java. The 

 culture on a systematic basis was introduced in 1841 by M. Teysmann, 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzong. He introduced the 

 artificial process of fecundation with beneficial results. 



There were 2 6 J- hectares under culture with vanilla in Tahiti in 

 1874, the produce being 2040 kilos., valued at 102,200 francs. 



Among the vegetable odours assimilating somewhat to vanilla are 

 the Faham leaves, of Mauritius, from another orchid, Angrcecum 

 fragrans, which somewhat resembles the perfume of vanilla and Ton- 

 quin beans. The leaves of a few other orchids, such as Orchis fusca, 

 dried carefully, also possess the odour of those of the Faham. 



Pimento, or Allspice. — This spice, of large consumption, is a West 

 Indian product, the fruit of a beautiful lofty evergreen tree, the Pimenta 

 officinalis, Lindley, Myrtus Pimenta, Linn. Eugenia Pimenta, Dec, 

 Jamaica enjoys the monopoly of supplying the markets of the world. 

 Every attempt to carry the seeds to San Domingo and Cuba and to 

 propagate it there has failed, and though the tree is found in Yucatan, 

 the fruit is not exported thence. 



The Pimento walks are situated in the mountains on the north side 

 of the island, where the trees grow in hundreds. It is a white-trunked 

 shapely tree, not unlike in form and growth an English apple tree, 

 but with a thicker, richer foliage, and dark glistening leaves, aromatic 

 like its fruit, and resembling those of the myrtle, to which family it 

 belongs. The trunk is white, because every year the bark strips. 

 Nature seems to have intended that some useful purpose should be 

 served by the bark, but hitherto it has not been made available com- 

 mercially. The tree blossoms twice, but only bears once a year. The 

 blossom that holds and sets to fruit appears in April. The tree grows 

 spontaneously, and seems to mock all the labours of man in his 

 endeavours to extend or improve its growth ; not one attempt in fifty 

 to propagate the young plants or to raise them from the seeds, in parts 

 of the country where it is not found growing spontaneously, having 

 succeeded. The usual method of forming a new Pimento plantation (in 

 Jamaica it is called a "walk") is nothing more than to appropriate a 

 piece of woodland in the neighbourhood of a plantation already exist- 

 ing, or in a district where the scattered trees are found in a native 



