162 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
attacks of the parasite Cephaleurus. The plantations 
dwindled away and seem to have disappeared about the 
time of the collapse of the nutmeg industry in 1866, 
and it is curious that though there can (or until recently 
could) be seen old nutmeg trees about Singapore, chiefly 
in the older gardens, which were relics of the old 
nutmeg plantations, hardly one of the old clove trees 
remains to the present day. 
In Sumatra, in the old days of the Bencoolen Settle- 
ment in 1823, there were a good many cloves planted, 
but after the settlement was handed over to ^ the Dutch 
they soon disappeared. 
NAMES OF THE PRODUCT 
The English word cloves is derived from the French 
clou (a nail), from the resemblance of the dried bud to 
a nail, and the same idea occurs in the Dutch word 
naghel, the Spanish clavo, and the Italian chiodo. 
The French word girojle (clous de girojle) is derived 
from caryophyllon. 
In Sanskrit the name is laoanga, whence the Bengali 
lung and Hindu laung, and this word also occurs in 
Malay as hunga lawang. It appears also in the name of 
the Indian clove bark kulit lawang. Eumphius gives 
the Amboinese name as hugu lawan and huhu lawan. 
The common Malay name for the spice nowadays 
is chingkeh, which Eumphius perhaps correctly derives 
from the Chinese iheng lui. 
It is rather remarkable that the Malay names for 
this Malayan spice are Indian and Chinese respectively, 
rather confirming the idea that the Malays themselves 
did not value or use this spice to any extent, and that 
it was the Chinese who first appreciated the value of 
it, and made the first use of it. 
Indeed, the Malays to the present day use it only 
to flavour gambir for chewing with betel-nut, and in 
certain medicines. 
The fruits of cloves, in Latin anthophylli^ anto- 
