FLAVORING PLANTS (from flu ror, OF. flarcer, odor, ML. flavor, yellow gold, yellowness, (rein Lat. Ilarere, to he yellow, from flares, yel low). Plants which impart their characteristic flavors to condiments, culinary preparations, bev erages, medicines, etc., with which they are mixed. rsually the part richest in the flavor is employed either in its native state or prepared in some way. The following examples will illustrate. The bark of the root (sassafras) ; the root (lic orice) ; rhizome (ginger and peppermint) ; bark (cinnamon) leaves (bay and culinary herbs, such as sage, thyme, etc.) : flower-buds (cloves, t'aleqrs); hovers (hops) ; aril lode of the seed (mace) ; rind of the fruit (citron, etc.) : unripe fruit (allspice) ; fresh ripe fruit (lemon) dried ripe fruit (vanilla, pepper) ; seed (nutmeg, car away). Alany of these owe their powers to essential oils, which in some cases are extracted and used in a similar manner; flavors of others are due to esters, alkaloids. etc. Spices, a group of flavoring plants, are almost wholly tropical in their origin, and were formerly grown in and exported from the East. Arabia was at one time noted as the land of spices, not so much because spices were produced there as because that country was the great distributing centre. Tropical America, which has made some notable additions to the list of flavoring plants, e.g. Cayenne pepper and vanilla, has developed a profitable industry in the growing and the ex porting of certain Asian spices, especially ginger and cloves.
The five spices illustrated herewith are treated more fully under their respective names. (1) Cinnamon is the dried bark of Cinnamoment Zeelanieum, and of its close rel atives, trees which grow in the East. The species figured is a native of Ceylon, which is cultivated in many other tropical countries, but nowhere else produces bark of such high quality. (2) Black pepper, the most widely
used of all spices, is the dried fruit of Piper nigrem, a native of the East Indies, but culti vated in other tropical countries. The stems, which are vine-like and seldom grow more than twenty feet long, spread so much that poles or trees are used to support them. The plants produce a profusion of mostly hermaphrodite flowers in spikes opposite the leaves. The crop is gathered as soon as the first berries become red, and is ready for export after drying. (3) Nutmeg is the kernel of the fruit of Myristica fragrans or moschnta and other related species, trees indigenous 'to the East, but cultivated in the tropics throughout the world. The succulent golden-yellow pear-like fruit opens by two valves and exposes the kernel as shown. These exterior parts, which look like candied fruit, are often preserved as a confection. The inner envelope which surrounds the nut is used in cookery under the name of mace (q.v.). (4) Ginger. the creep ing rootstocks of various species of Zingiber, of which the commonest is Zingiber officinale, is used as a condiment and a medicine, for which pur poses it is cultivated in and exported from va rious tropical countries, especially the West Indies. The finest quality is said to come from Jamaica. The common species is a native of the East Indies, where it has been cultivated for hundreds of years. (5) Cloves are the dried flower-buds of the clove-tree (Eugenia earpophyl late), a pyramidal evergreen often forty feet tall in its native home. the Spice Islands. The leaves, flowers, and bark are aromatic-, and the olive-like fruit, which is exported to a small extent under the curious name of 'mother of cloves,' has a similar hut weaker odor and flavor. See HERBS, CULINARY.