1231. Clove (_Myrtus caryophyllus_), an evergreen small tree, the dried flower-buds of which form the celebrated aromatic, grows naturally in the Moluccas, whence it has been conveyed to other tropical districts. The island of Amboyna, one of that group, is the principal seat of its cultivation. The lowest temperature there is 72 degs.; the mean temperature of the year 82 degs. 1232. Nutmeg (_Myrstica moschata_) grows naturally in several islands of the eastern archipelago, but is principally cultivated in the Banda Isles. Tropical families and forms successively vanish with an increase of distance from the equator, and new phases of vegetation mark the transition from hot to temperate climates. Vividly green meadows, abounding with tender herbs, replace the tall rigid grasses which form the impenetrable jungle; and instead of forests composed of towering evergreen trees, woods of the deciduous class appear, which cast their leaves in winter, and hybernate in the colder season, the oak, ash, elm, maple, beech, lime, alder, birch, and sycamore. The cultivation of the vine becomes characteristic, with the perfection of the cereal grasses, and a larger proportion of herbaceous annuals and cryptogamic plants. 1233. The vine (_Vitis vinifera_) is less impatient of a cold winter than a cool summer. Hence its northern limit, which coincides with lat. 47 deg. 30 min. on the west coast of France, rises in the interior, where, though the winters are colder, the summers are warmer, to lat. 49 degs., cuts the Rhine at Coblentz in lat. 50 deg. 20 min., and ascends to 52 deg. 31 min. in Germany.