CLOVES. ClavUE, LAT.
Karnful, . . . . ARALL GIOUS de girofle, . . FR. Buwah-luvung, . BALI. Cirofles, Lang-yen.hwen, . Bum Naglein, . . . . GER.
Gewuranelken, . Ting-tsze, Ki-eheh, Luvung, . . .
Ting-hiang, . . . Long, . . . . . BIND.
Kruid-nagelen,. . DUT. Oarofani, Ir.
Nageln-boomen, . Chiovi di Garoffoli, Woh-kayu-lawang,. JAv. Lavanga, . . . . SANSK. Chenki, Chankee, MALAY. Warfala, . . . SINGH. Bungalawang, . . Clavfflos, SP.
Bunga changke, . Clavo especia, Mehuc, bleykhek, . PERS. Lavangam, . . . TAM. eravos da India, . PORT. Lawangama, . . TEL. Gwosdika, . . . R us. In a law passed by Aurelian the First, in A.D. 175 and 180, cloves are mentioned. The cloves of commerce are the unopened flower-buds of the clove tree, Caryophyllus aromaticus, which was originally a native of the Moluccas and of China, but is now cultivated in Penang, Sumatra, S. India, Bourbon, Zanzibar, Guiana, E. Africa, and the West India Islands. The clove tree may be seen in a few gardens on the Tenasserim coast, and in Travancore, Tinnevelly, Canara, Cochin, and near Oodagherry, 1800 feet above the sea. They have the form of a nail, and when examined are seen to consist of the tubular calyx with a roundish projection, formed by the unopened petals. The flowers, produced in branched ped uncles at the extremity of the bough, are of a delicate peach colour. The elongated calyx, forming the seed-vessel, first changes to yellow, and when ripe to red, which is from October to December, and in this state it is fit to gather. If left for a few weeks longer on the trees, they expand, and become what are termed ' mother cloves,' fit only for seed or for candying. In the gatheting, the ground under the tree is first swept clean, or else a mat or cloth is spread. The nearest clusters are taken off with the hand, 'and the more distant by the aid ofcrooked sticks. Great care is taken not to injure the tree. The
cloves are then prepared for shipment by smoking them on hurdles near a slow wood fire, to give them a brown colour, after which they are further dried in the sun. They may then be cut off from the flower branches with the nails, and will be found to be purple-coloured. within, and fit to be baled for the European market. In some places they are scalded in hot water before being smoked, but this is not common. The tree begins to bear front the seventh to the fifteenth year, and is fruitful till it is 75 or 150 years old. The annual -yield of a good tree is about 4i lbs. ; and the annual crop froin Amboyna, Haruku, Saparna, and Nasalaut, was 350,000 lbs. of Amsterdam (Bikmore, p. 154). The companions of Magellan loaded two ships with cloves at the single island Tidor, after a stay, from their arrival to their departure, of no more than forty-four days. The Portuguese made their first appearance in the parent country of cloves in the year 1512, and, until expelled by the Dutch in 1605, they had the principal share of the clove tradelor 93 yews, :a period of rapine, violence, and bigotry. The main object of the Dutch was the exclusive monopoly of spices, by the expulsion of all rivals. They extirpated the clove trees in their native islands, and endeavoured to limit their growth to the five Amboyna islands, in which the clove is an exotic. Periodical expeditions for the ex tirpation of young plants, that might spontan eously have sprung up, or\ been propagated by 'birds, formed part of that system. The periodical .exterminating expeditions became tnerely nominal after the year 1820, and have been discontinued. --M. E..J. R.; Bilcmore, Archip. p. 115 ; Sint moods, Com. ' Prod.; Craufitra's Dictionary ; 3PCulloch's Dictionary.