ble, beyond all
other flowers. When ripe, the cloves are of a yellow colour, but
after being gathered and dried, they assume a smoky and black hue. In
gathering, they tie a rope round each bough, and strip off the whole
of its produce by force, which violence injures the tree for the next
year, but it bears more than ever in the following season. Others beat
the trees with long poles, as we do walnut-trees, when the cloves fall
down on cloths spread on the ground to receive them. The trees
bear more fruit than leaves, the fruit hanging from the trees like
cherries. Such cloves as are sold in the Indies are delivered just as
procured from the trees, mixed with their stalks, and with dust and
dirt; but such as are to be transported to Holland are carefully
cleaned and freed from the stalks. If left ungathered on the tree,
they grow large and thick, and are then termed _mother-cloves_, which
the Javanese value more than the others, but the Dutch prefer the
ordinary cloves.

No care is ever taken in propagating or planting clove-trees, as the
cloves which fall to the ground produce them in abundance, and the
rains make them grow so fast that they give fruit in eight years,
continuing to bear for more than an hundred years after. Some are of
opinion that the clove-tree does not thrive close to the sea, nor when
too far removed; but seamen who have been on the island assert that
they are found everywhere, on the mountains, in the vallies, and
quite near the sea. They ripen from the latter end of August to the
beginning of January. Nothing whatever grows below or near these
trees, neither grass, herb, or weed, as their heat draws all the
moisture and nourishment of the soil to themselves. Such is the hot
nature of cloves, that when a sackful of them is laid over a vessel
of water, some of the water is very soon wasted, but the cloves are no
way injured. When a pitcher of water is left in a room in which cloves
are cleaned, all the water is consumed in two days, although even the
cloves have been removed. Cloves are preserved in sugar, forming an
extraordinary good confection. They are also pickled. Many Indian
women chew cloves to give them a sweet breath. A very sweet-smelling
water is distilled from green cloves, which is excellent for
strengthening the eyes, by putting a drop or two into the eyes. Powder
of cloves laid upon the head cures the headache; and used inwardly,
increases urine, helps digestion, and is good agains