TROPICAL SPICES. 



389 



greenhouses ; it has not, hov/ever, that we are aware of, yet produced 

 fruit in the gardens of Europe. 



This tree is a native of the East and West Indies, and also of Arabia 

 and Egypt. The pods produced on the West Indian trees are from two 

 to five inches long, and contain two, three, or four seeds ; the East 

 Indian ones are twice as long, and contain nearly double the number of 

 seeds. The crop of pods is usually ripe in the West Indies about 

 June, July, and August ; they are then gathered, and when cleared of 

 the shelly fragments, are placed in casks, in regular and compact 

 layers, over which boiling syrup of sugar is poured, to fill up all 

 cavities : they are then fit for exportation. The East Indian tamarinds 

 are said to be preserved without sugar. The boiling syrup appears to 

 have little effect upon their vegetative functions, for w^e have frequently 

 obtained plenty of young plants from the seeds taken out of the tamarinds 

 in their preserved state. It might be worth the trial to see how far the 

 seeds of other Tropical Plants might be safely imported by being packed 

 in a similar manner. 



The tamarind tree is of very easy culture, requiring only the tempera- 

 ture of the stove, and a loam and peat soil. It was remarked by Miller, 

 that although he had several plants of twenty years' growth, they had 

 shown no disposition to produce their flowers, and we beheve this has 

 been universally the case. 



TROPICAL SPICES. 



it is not less singular than true, that the plants which produce the 

 most esteemed spices are all natives of the tropics, and also that not 

 one of them has been found to produce its fruit in the open air 

 of Britain. The use of spices is of the highest antiquity, and Frankin- 

 cense and Myrrh are names handed down to us by the earliest historians. 

 " Spices have always been regarded as luxurious acquisitions, while their 

 small comparative bulk, and consequent facility of transport, caused them 

 to be amongst the first articles of commerce obtained from remote 

 countries. The inhabitants of more temperate regions have, therefore, 

 for ages been in the enjoyment of most of the most delicious aromatics 

 fostered by a tropical sun." — Library of Entertaining Knoivledge, 



Arabia Felix is said to have obtained its name from the ancient 



