50 
EUGENIA CARYOPHYLLATA. 
and placed above the gerraen ; the corolla consists of four petals, 
roundish, notched, very small, at first white, afterwards bluish green, 
and finally of a red colour ; the filaments are numerous, slender, 
inserted into the calyx, and furnished with simple anthers ; the 
germen is oblong, large, terminated by the calyx of the fruit, and 
placed below the insertion of the corolla ; the style is tapering, and 
the stigma simple; the pericarpium is one-celled, urabilicated, and 
terminated by the indurated converging calyx ; the seed is a large 
oval berry; the fruit in its mature state is known by the name 
Anthophyllns. 
The clove is the flower of the tree before it is fully expanded ; for 
when fully blown it is nearly inodorous, and the real fruit is not 
aromatic. At Amboyna, the season for gathering them is from 
October to December and January, when the flowers begin to 
assume their reddish hue ; the boughs of the trees are then strongly 
shaken, or the cloves beaten down with long reeds, large cloths 
being spread to receive them ; they require to be dried quickly, 
but are first immersed in boiling water, then exposed to the 
smoke of the bamboo cane, and a heat of 120° Fahr., when they 
acquire a dark yellowish hue; the drying is afterwards finished in 
the sun, when they become perfectly brown. The fumigation and 
immersion are thought necessary to preserve the clove. In the 
West Indies, those cloves dried altogether in the sun are considered 
the best. The clove tree yields its first crop at I he a<^e of six years, 
and attains its highest state of bearing at twelve ; and it is said, 
that its existence is limited to twenty-four or twenty-five years. 
Cloves are imported into this country from the Dutch settlements ; 
the best in chests, and the inferior kinds in bags. 
Sensible Properties. Good cloves have a strong, fragrant, 
aromatic odour, and a hot, acrid, aromatic taste, which is very per- 
manent; when in perfection, they are heavy, oily, and easily broken ; 
they should make the fingers smart when handled, and leave 
an oily moisture on them when pressed. In form they resemble a 
small nail, scarcely exceeding half an inch in length, with a roundish, 
conical head, resting in a socket formed of. and terminated by, four 
sharp spreading p(»ints, somewhat resembling the tangs of a tooth. 
Their colour is a deep reddish brown, the conical part of the head 
being lighter and jellower; this head is very easily separated from 
the body of the clove. The best variety of Amboyna cloves is 
smaller and darker than the other varieties, very scarce, and as a 
mark of pre-eminence is named the royal clove ; the Dutch some- 
times mix among the best cloves those from which the oil has been 
