IV 
CLOVES 
173 
This destruction of the bud leaves and the growing 
point of the branch seem sufficient to account for the 
failure of this tree to produce flowers when badly 
attacked. The fine clove trees of Penang and Province 
Wellesley are not grown under shade, but fully exposed 
to the hot sun and its brilliant light, being cultivated in 
the same way and in the same positions as the nutmeg, 
but they are hardly at all attacked and are not, as a rule, 
injured by the parasite. I attribute this phenomenon to 
the action of the sea-air, as I have noticed that where 
the clove trees in Penang are away from the sea by 
the configuration of the ground, so that the sea can- 
not be seen from where they are growing, these trees are 
attacked and die ; and again, trees planted in various 
parts of the Botanic Gardens, and in other districts of 
Singapore where no sea-air can possibly reach them, 
soon become badly affected and die. This was notably 
the case in an estate of nutmegs and cloves planted inland 
some years ago, where when the clove trees had reached 
the fruiting stage they died without flowering at all. 
Badly diseased trees may live for many years before they 
actually succumb. Trees over thirty years old in the 
Singapore Botanic Gardens are still alive, though most 
have never produced flowers. The appearance of a sick 
tree is quite striking. Instead of being densely covered 
with rich dark-green leaves it is thin ; many boughs 
bear only a few leaves at the end ; the whole tree has 
a birch-broom-like appearance (see plate). 
The saying that the clove tree must see the sea is 
probably based on its requirements of sea -air, for 
without this the plant is almost always a failure. It 
cannot be said to have ever been a great success in 
the rather flat though undulating inland of Singapore, 
nor have I ever seen it well -grown elsewhere inland 
at any distance from the sea breezes. In such spots 
it seems always to succumb to the CepJialeurus, sooner 
or later. 
In mild cases spraying with Bordeaux mixture 
is decidedly beneficial, but this treatment needs to 
