PATtT II.

Materia Medica.— Eugenia cart/opJiyllata.

295

The clove-tree is a native of the Moluccas, where it wasoriginally abundantly found, particularly at Machian i but the

S policy of the" Dutch led them to destroy almost all the"reL Jeep/those which they cultivated on the elands ofSboyna, Honimoa, Oma, MS Notttohu* ,*»* >t<>g™ thema monopoly of the trade, which they have held ^ l**j heFrench however, obtained some plants, ^ J^««dtothe Isle of France, in 1770, and thence, n "7*,^g»JIn 1789 it was also introduced into the island j[£aMm«hJWilliam Urban Buee, esq. \ and at all these places tisnowcultivated. It is a handsome tall tree ™ n « ^ » fcte ^very hard wood, covered with a greyish smooth bark. Ihe

Ses are oblong, lanceolate, ^^le^^'eSwith many parallel nerves, on each side of the nndnbj entire^sinuated, and supported on brown petioles about halt thength of the leaf" The colour of the leaves is dull _**£when bruised their odour is strong, and aromatic. Its flowersare in terminal bunches, or corymbose V^V^fo^rally consist of 9, 15, ov 21 flowers. Tire t^^JhSEwoody, and divided at the brim into four small, toothed^seg-ments. The corolla consists of four, roundish, notched, smallZa inclosing many slender filaments inserted mto the calyx,Cing simple anthers. The germen is oblong, with a snnplestyle • the fruit an inferior, coriaceous, bi ocular berry.

Al hough the unopened flowers of this tree, and even theleases particularly their petioles, are «t ^£*£*£odorous, yet the flowers are inodorous when they arRdyblown; ancl the real fruit is not aromatic. The cloves are Weunexpended flowers, which are first obta.ned when to > tree issix years old. At Amboyna they are collected horn Uctobei toDecember, when they negm to redden. Thj = ^to bedried quickly; on which account they f^^J^f^boiling water, then exposed to smoke and a *•*£"££*£till they begin to assume a brown hue; and atte wauls tnenrVmgi finished in the sun. In the West I****** <*£"which are dried altogether in the sun are considered the best.

Cfolwe e fir,t Introduced into Europe by the Arabians,who brought them from India. They «* «ft^**tf*country from the Dutch settlements; the bestjn chesfe, and aninferior kind in bags. The oil is brought in bottle, ,Jbut aconsiderable quantity is drawn in this country The btetvariety of the Amboyna cloves is smaller and blackei ftan theother varieties, very scarce, and as a mark of pre-emine ce isnamed the iioyal clove. The Dutch sometimes ™* ™§the best cloves, those from which the oil has been drawn, and

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i Journal <le FhywpuU *

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