CHAPTER X CLOVES Your unexpanded flower buds fair Hold for us flavors fine and rare, Welcome your petals in our home, ’Though Nature choose you should not bloom. CLOVES are the unexpanded flower buds of Eugenia Caryophyllata of Caryophyllus Aromaticus, a tree belonging to the natural order Myrtacca, and are named from the French word clou, signifying nail, which it sometimes resembles. The French word, _Girofle Cloux de Girofle_; German, _Gewurzuelken_; Persian, _Meykuk_; Sanskrit, _Lavunga_; Arabia, _Kerunful_; Bengalle, _Lung_; Malay, _Chankee, Lawang_; Portuguese, _Cravos da India_; Chinese, _Thenghio_; Java, _Wohkayu, Lawang_; Hindoo, _Laung_. It is indigenous to the Molucca or, as they are frequently called, the “Spice Islands.” It was originally confined to five of these islands, viz: Tidor, Ternate, Motir, Batian, and Kian, but chiefly to the last. These constitute a string of islands westward of the large island Gilalo and, strange to say, the clove tree does not appear to do well on the large islands, such as Gilalo and Ceram and Celebes. It is probable that Booro and the Xula Isles constitute about the western limit of the successful culture of the clove. Although it is a native of small islands, it will not do well too near the sea where it receives much moisture, or at a high elevation where it is cold. Sloping loam land is best, where there is no stagnant water, 1,000 feet elevation being the limit. The clove tree is found outside the Moluccas and Amboina, Haruka, Saparua, and Naesalaut in the following places: Guiana, Zanzibar, Pemba, Java, Sumatra, Reunion, and West Indies islands. There are five varieties of cloves as follows: 1. The ordinary cultivated clove. 2. The female clove with pale stem, which natives call poleng. 3. The keriak or leory cloves. 4. The royal clove (which is very scarce). 5. The wild clove. The first three are about equally valuable as spices, the female being considered best for distillation of essential oil, while the wild clove has very little aromatic flavor and no value but for adulteration.