154: TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN AECHIPELAGO, 



one Hundi^d and fifty years ; the trees, therefore, are 

 of very different sizes. Here at Amboina it is not 

 expected to bear fi'uit before its twelfth or fifteenth 

 yeai*, and to cease yielding when it is seventy-five 

 years old. Its limited distribution has always at- 

 tracted attention^ and Rumphius, who describes it as 

 " the most beautiful, the most elegant, and the moat 

 precious of all known trees,^- remarks : " Hence it ap- 

 pears that the Great Disposer of things in His wis- 

 dom, allotting His gifts to the several regions of the 

 world, placed clo^^es in the kingdom of the Moluccas, 

 beyond which, by no human industry, can they be 

 propagated or perfectly cultivated." In the last ob- 

 servation, however, he was mistaken, for since Ma 

 time it has been successfully introduced into the isl- 

 and of Penang, in the Strait of Malacca, and Suma^ 

 tra, Bourbon, Zanzibar, and the coast of Guiana and 

 the West India Islands. The clove is the flower-bud, 

 and grows in clusters at the ends of the twigs. The 

 annual yield of a good tree is about four pounds and 

 a half, and the yearly crop on Amboina, Haruku, 

 Sapama, and Nusalaut, the only islands where the 

 tree is now cultivated, is 350,000 Amsterdam pounds * 

 It is, however, extremely variable and uncertaia- — for 

 example, in 1846 it was 869,727 Amsterdam pounds, 

 but in 1849 it was only 89,923, or little more than 

 one-tenth of what it was three years before. Piga- 

 fetta informs us that, when the Spanish first came to 

 the Moluccas, there were no restrictions on the cul- 

 ture or sale of the clove. The annual crop at that 



* According to official stateraeata, tlie totnl yield from 1675 to 1854 

 was 100,034,036 Amsterdjim pouads. 



