576 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



produce, on driving through a long line of them; a degree of exquisite pleasure onlj^ 

 to be enjoyed in the clear, light atmosphere of these latitudes. 



Cloves contain a very large proportion of essential oil, which combined with a pecu- 

 liar resin gives them their pungent aroma. It seems, however, to require a combina- 

 tion of favorable circumstances of climate and soil for the full development of their 

 virtues ; for, though the tree is found in the larger islands of Eastern Asia, and in 

 Cochin China, it has there little or no flavor, and the Moluccas seem to be the only 

 place where the clove comes to perfection without being cultivated. Though it is at 

 present planted in Zanzibar, Cayenne, Bourbon, Trinidad, and other places, yet 

 Amboyna still furnishes the best quality and the largest quantity, exporting annually 

 about a million of pounds. 



In spite of the endeavors of the Dutch to confine the Nutmeg tree to the narrow 

 precincts of Banda, it has likewise extended its range not only over Sumatra, Mau- 

 ritius, Bourbon, and Ceylon, but even over the western hemisphere. It is of a more 

 majestic growth than the clove, as it attains a hight of fifty feet, and the leaves, of a 

 fine green on the upper surface, and gray beneath, are more handsome in the outline, 

 and broader in proportion to the length. When the trees are about nine years old, 

 they begin to bear. They are dioecious, having male or barren flowers upon one tree, 

 and female or fertile upon another. The flowers of both are small, white, bell-shaped, 

 without any calyx ; the embryo-fruit appearing at the bottom of the female flowers in 

 the form of a little reddish knob. When ripe, it resembles in appearance and size 

 a small peach, and then the outer rind, which is about half an inch thick, bursts at 

 the side, and discloses a shining black nut, which seems the darker from the contrast 

 of the leafy network of a fine red color with which it is enveloped. The latter forms 

 the Mace of commerce, and having been laid to dry in the shade for a short time, is 

 packed in bags and pressed together very tightly. The shell of the nut is larger and 

 harder than that of the filbert, and could not, in the state in which it is gathered, be 

 broken without injuring the nut. On that account the nuts are successively dried in 

 the sun and then by fire-heat, till the kernel shrinks so much as to rattle in the shell, 

 which is then easily broken. After this the nuts are three times soaked in sea- water 

 and lime ; they are then laid in a heap, where they heat and get rid of their super- 

 fluous moisture by evaporation. This process is pursued to preserve the substance 

 and flavor of the nut, as well as to destroy its vegetative power. The kernel con- 

 tains both a fixed oil, which is obtained by pressure, a pound generally yielding three 

 ounces, and a transparent volatile oil, which may be obtained by distillation in the 

 proportion of one thirty-second part of the weight of nutmeg used. The outer rinds 

 are likewise not without use to the natives. They are laid in large heaps, and al- 

 lowed to putrefy, when they get covered with a blackish mushroom, which is esteemed 

 as a great delicacy. 



Pepper, although not so costly as cloves or cinnamon, is of a much greater com- 

 mercial value, as its consumption is at least a hundred times greater. It grows on 

 a beautiful vine, which, incapable of supporting itself, twines round poles prepared 

 for it ; or, as is more common in the Travancore plantations, the pepper vines are 

 planted near mango and other trees of straight high stems. As these are stripped of 



