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ing along the shore. Such is the general character of Amboyna. It is not one of the fairest or richest islands of the Archipelago; much of its surface is bare and barren, and it presents but little of that exuberant vegetation which we are accustomed to associate with the tropics. In fact, it owes its celebrity and its wealth to one special vegetable product-the clove-tree-(caryophyllus Aromaticus). Such being the case, and groves of clove-trees, with their bright green verdure, being the pleasantest objects in the island, before we go further it will be well for us to devote some attention to so remarkable a source of wealth.

CLOVE.

We first hear of cloves in Europe about A. D. 175-180, in the reign of the Emperor Aurelian, when they are mentioned as imported into Alexandria from India-the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea forming then as now the great highway along which flowed. the traffic of the East. They were carried by the Javanese and Malays from the Molluccas to the peninsula of Mallacca; thence the Telingas, or Klings, transported them to Calicut, the once famous capital of Malibar. From Calicut they passed to the western shores of India, and crossing the Arabian Sea, found their way up the Red Sea to the Egyptian port.

The native name for this fruit is chenki, which may be a corruption of the Chinese theng-ki, or "sweet smelling nails." The resemblance to a nail has also suggested the Dutch name, krind-nagel, or "hub-nail" (the trees are nagelen-boomen, or "nailtrees"), and the Spanish clavos (Latin clavus, a nail), whence comes our English "clove."

The clove tree belongs to the order of Myrtles, which includes the guava, pomegranate and the roseapple. Its topmost branches are usually forty or fifty feet from the ground, and the full-grown trunk measures eight to ten inches in diameter. It was originally confined, says Bickmore, to the five islands off the west coast of Gilolo, which then comprised the whole group known as the Molluccas-a name that has since been extended to Bouru, Amboyna and the other islands off the south coast of Ceram, where the clove has been introduced and cultivated within a comparatively late period. On these five islands it begins to bear in its seventh or eighth year, and sometimes continues to yield until it has reached an age of nearlg one hundred and fifty years; the trees, therefore, are of very different sizes. Here at Amboyna it is not expected to bear fruit before its twelfth or fifteenth year, and to cease yielding when it is seventy-five years old.

A quaint description of this celebrated tree is given by Pigafetta, who accompanied Magellan in his voyage around the world: It attains a pretty considerable height, and its trunk is about as large as a man's body, varying more or less according to its age. Its branches extend very wide about the middle of the trunk, but at the summit terminate in a pyramid. Its leaf resembles that of the laurel, and the bark is of an olive color. The cloves grow at the end of small branches, in clusters of from ten to twenty, and the tree, according to the season, sends forth more on one side than the other. The cloves at first are white, as they ripen they become more reddish, and blacken as they dry.

To this we may add that the buds when young

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are white, afterwards they change to a light green, and finally to a bright red, when they must at once be gathered, which is done by picking them by hand, or beating them off with bamboos, so that they drop in showers on cloths spread beneath the trees. When they have been dried in the sun-a process which changes them from red to black-they are ready for market. The gathering seasons are from June to December. The soil best adapted to the tree seems a warm, loose, sandy loam.

CHOCOLATE BEAN.

Another of the valuable products of this group, as others of the Eastern Archipelago, is the cacao theobroma, the chocolate bean of commerce. It is not native here, but is one of the few things which the Orient has borrowed from the West. The Spaniards discovered it in Mexico, and transplanted it to their settlements in South America and the West Indies. Thence it traveled to the Molluccas. also cultivated in Guinea and Brazil.

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The cacao tree seldom exceeds twenty feet in height. Its leaves are large, oblong and pointed; its flowers hang in pale red clusters, not only from its branches, but also from its trunk and roots. Hence a cacao plantation has a singular and striking appearance, as Humboldt did not fail to notice. Never, he says, shall I forget the profound impression made on my mind by the luxuriance of tropical vegetation when I first saw a cacao garden. After a damp night, large blossoms of the theobroma ("drink for gods!") issue from the root a considerable distance from the trunk, emerging from the deep black mold. A more

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