98 



POPULAE ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



34 tons; re-exported, 20 tons; used for home consumption, 

 only 9 tons, — nearly all from Penang. 



Cloves are the unexpanded flower-buds of the Clove-tree. 

 CaryophjUus aromaticus, (Nat. Ord. Mi/rtace^e.) (Plate 

 IL fig. 10.) 



The Clove does not appear to have been long known in 

 Europe : Sir J. E. Smith supposes it to be the Carunfel of 

 Serapion, and the Carunfel helium of Avicenna, two Arabian 

 physicians of the eleventh century ; but it was previously 

 mentioned by Paulus Egineta, a Greek physician in the 

 seventh century, under the name of Kapv6(j)vX\ov, It is a 

 native of the Molucca Islands, and for a long time consti- 

 tuted an important trade with Amboyna, the chief of the 

 Moluccas. In this island alone, the Dutch, who were masters 

 of the whole group, permitted the clove to be cultivated, 

 carefully extirpating the plant from all the other islands ; and 

 even here they only allowed a limited number of trees to be 

 cultivated, lest the price should fall too low. This narrow 

 policy produced its natural effect : it stimulated the desire 

 of other nations to possess so valuable a spice, and eventually 

 in 1770 the Erenchby some means obtained and introduced 

 it to the Isle of Bourbon, where it flourished; thence it 

 was carried to Cayenne and the West Indies; it is now 



