EUGENIA CARYOPHYLLATA. 49 
this time the clove tree was very abundant throughout the islands, 
but on their conquest hy the Dutch in 1005. the commercial jealousy 
of this nation led them to destroy all the clove trees, except in four 
of them,* that they might the belter guard and protect the monopoly 
which they contemplated to establish in this trade. At Amboyna, 
which is the seat of government, and the principal place of growth 
for the cloves, the Dutch company allotted the inhabitants four 
thousand parcels of land, on each of which they were at first 
allowed, and about the year 1720 compelled, to plant about one 
hundred and twenty-five trees, amounting in all to five hundred 
thousand. Each of these trees produces annually, on an average, 
more than two pounds of cloves, so that the collective produce must 
weigh more than a million. Notwithstanding the precautions of 
the Dutch to retain an exclusive property in cloves, the tree has, 
at successive periods, found its way into other countries. In 
1770, the French obtained some plants, which they carried to 
the Isle of France, and from thence, in 1774, to Cayenne. In 1789, 
it was also introduced into the island of Dominica, by William Urban 
Bu^ll, Esq.; and in 1803 into the island of Sumatra, by Mr. VVm. 
Roxburgh ; it is now cultivated at all these places ; we have not 
heard that any attempt has yet been made to introduce it into 
Europe. To bring the tree to the greatest perfection, a peculiar 
mode of cultivation seems necessary, which is practised at Amboyna 
by the Dutch, who keep it a profound secret. 
The clove tree is a handsome tall branching tree.f rising upon a 
stem of very hard wood, covered with a greyish smooth bark; no 
verdure, it is said, is ever seen beneath it ; the leaves are oblong, 
lanceolate, and pointed at both ends, firm, with many parallel 
nerves on each side of the midrib, entire, sinnated, and supported 
on short brown footstalks, standing in pairs : they are of rather a 
dull green colour, and, when bruised, their odour is highly aromatic ; 
the flowers terminate the branches in bunches or panicles, which 
generally consist of nine, fifteen, or twenty-one flowers; the calyx 
of the fruit is oblong, woody, and divided at the brim into four 
permanent, small, pointed segments ; the calyx of the flower is 
composed of four leaflets, which are roundish, concave, deciduous. 
♦ Ambojna, Orna, Honimoa, and Noussa-Laout, 
t According to some writers, this tree, in favourable situations, frequently grows to 
the height of fiftj feet, and will bear from about nine or ten years to one hundred years 
of age, producing annually from ten to twenty pounds of cloves each ; all these state- 
ments are probably exaggerated. 
VOL II. T 
