CHAP. 
168 SPICES 
especially protection from the afternoon sun, suits the 
tree much better. 
Trees growing in the partial shade given by the 
tree Fagraea fragrans, in the Botanic Gardens, Singa- 
pore, were more bushy and well developed, as well as 
being more free from the red-spot disease, than fully 
exposed trees, and in one case even the boughs of one 
half of a clove tree accidentally shaded on one side by 
a near-by tree produced flowers and fruit when the 
rest of the tree was quite barren. Rumphius pointed 
out that the shade must not be dense ; under such shade 
the tree grows tall, and looks well and leafy and, as I 
have said, is less subject to red-spot, but it will not 
produce flower buds, and, according to Rumphius, when 
it does they are less aromatic, and are considered by 
the natives as wild cloves of little or no value. Trees 
grown under the shade of and close to a large Para 
rubber tree, produced no cloves for many years, although 
remarkably healthy -looking. By selecting a piece of 
wooded ground and thinning out the trees so as to let 
in a good amount of light, and planting the cloves among 
the light wood, gradually thinning away the forest 
trees as the spice trees develop, an excellent plantation 
would be obtained. 
According to Rumphius, a walk in the clove wood 
when the trees are in bud or flower, is said to cause head- 
ache, but, as he points out, this season in Amboyna, viz. 
October and November, is a hot one, and this probably 
is the cause of the discomfort. It does not appear that 
the clove tree is regularly cultivated under trees any- 
where except in Amboyna, but it is said that in 
Zanzibar many are grown by the slaves among fruit 
trees and other similar plants. 
Pruning . — Pruning the trees does not seem to be 
common in any place where cloves are cultivated, but 
as the tree has a tendency to throw up its branches 
very close together, it is often advisable to cut out some 
of the inner ones. In the Straits Settlements the tree 
usually attains a height of 12 to 15 ft. only, and it is not 
