196 
SPICES 
CHAP. IV 
century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century 
they were commonly mixed with clove buds and distilled, 
in order to cheapen the price of clove oil (Gildenmeister 
and Hoffmann, Volatile Oils). 
Mother-Cloves. — These are the dried fruits of the 
clove. They contain less clove oil than the buds, but 
are occasionally exported to Europe for making clove 
oil. 1,050 bags were sold in England in 1873 at 2d. to 
3d. per lb. 
In the old days of clove cultivation in Penang most 
of the mother-cloves went to China, the Chinese having 
a fancy for them for medicine. The planters had an 
idea, however, that the production of mother-cloves 
exhausted the tree, which is possible. As a rule, 
the planter naturally gathers his whole crop of flower 
buds, so that no mother-cloves are left on the trees, 
except those required for propagating, but frequently 
in picking a certain number of flowers are left here and 
there, which develop into mother-cloves. There is 
nothing to be gained by leaving them to fruit, however, 
as there is a better demand for the clove-buds than for 
the mother-cloves. 
Literature 
Buee. Narrative of the Successful Manner of Cultivating the Clove Tree 
in Dominica. 
Karsten. Annales du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg, vol. x. p. 24 
(Gephaleurus). 
Marshall Ward. Trans. Linn. Soc., 1881, vol. ii. p. 87. 
Cunningham. Trans. Linn. Soc., 1800. 
