10 Aniucci.rrRAi. PRODUt I 



In 1798. a few spice plnul.s were imp rted from the 

 Dutch Spice IsUnds, but in fee year 1800, khwa were 

 brought from Amboinn, five thousa nd nut meg and 

 fifteen thousand clove plants. B 1802, a further and 

 larger number arrived, the collection of H»e Gov* pa- 

 racnt agent, Mr.* U or iter. This consisted of 25,02(5 

 seedling nutmeg trees, and 175 plants of ag**» varjiug 

 ;V dri f -ur td seven years. 



Shortly before this last perioiJL a Government epu e 

 tiinlru had hern established, embracing one hundred 

 and thirty acres of land, Lyir^? on the slopes if M<* 

 skirt the base of the hill near Ainic's Mill*, a nmiau- 

 tir spot and wel] Watered In a riumiu&stream n .w 

 called A ver Pntih. This plantation, in some respects 

 a mere nursery, contained in the above year Hi e num- 

 ber of 19 ? 62tf nutmeg plants, van in*; from ojie 

 up to four years okl, 3,460 befeg four ymn of age. 

 There wnv aisn 6,259 clove trees, of which 069 were 

 above six, and under seven years old. 



In the same year 1802, Mr. Smith, the Honorable 

 Company** b.tanist, reported thai he had imported in 

 all, to the island, at that date, 71,206 nutmeg and 

 55,264 clove plants, out of which a few were reserved 

 for the botanical gardeniat Kew, Calcutta and Ma- 

 dras. These plants were distributed t<> the follow in- 

 places mi .the island. A few to the flag-stair hill, a 

 number to the botanical garden on the Ayer Limn 

 r(U d, also In llatn Lanclianjr, Bailey Pido, Ptiq Ti- 

 eoose, and Mount Olivia. Some remnants of tla >c 

 plantations are still to be found at those places but it 

 can hardly be matter M surprise that they should 

 have nearly disappeared, wheu it is considered that 

 the trees were huddled together and occupied less than 

 half of the area of land which they should have had, 

 and were moreover, in most instances, planted under 

 huge for^jrt trees, and thus denied the dews and 



