164? CLOVES. 
manufacture, to the amount of more than one million of 
pounds sterling per annum. 
If good tea be taken in moderate quantity it is con- 
sidered by medical men to be beneficial, by exhilarat- 
ing the spirits and invigorating the system ; but, when 
taken too copiously, it is apt to occasion weakness, tre- 
mor, and other bad symptoms. 
The tea plant may be propagated in the temperate 
climates of Europe, as well as in the Indies ; under the 
shelter of a south wall it will even flourish in our own 
gardens. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that the 
fresh leaves, if used for tea, produce giddiness and 
stupefaction ; but these noxious properties are capable 
of being dissipated by the process of roasting. 
In some of the southern parts of England there are 
smugglers who have reduced to a regular process the 
management of the leaves of the ash, the sloe, and 
some other trees, for the adulteration of tea. The 
article thus prepared has the name of smouch, and is 
sometimes mixed in the proportion of about one-third, 
with the ordinary teas. The preparation of it, however, 
if discovered, is subject to very heavy penalties. 
175. CLOVES are the unexpanded flower-buds of an East 
Indian tree (Caryophyllus aromaticus, Fig. 50), somewhat 
resembling the laurel in its height, and in the shape of its 
leaves. 
The leaves are in pairs, oblong, large, spear-shaped, and of 
bright green colour. The flowers grow in clusters, which ter- 
minate the branches, and have the calyx divided into four small 
and pointed segments. The petals are small, rounded, and of 
bluish colour ; and the seed is an oval berry. 
In the Molucca islands, where the preparation of 
different spices was formerly carried on by the Dutch 
colonists to great extent, the culture of the clove-tree 
was a very important pursuit. It has even been as- 
serted that, in order to secure a lucrative branch of 
commerce in this article to themselves, they destroyed 
all the trees growing in other islands, and confined the 
propagation of them to that of Ternate only. But it 
