Book II. Chapter I. AMBOINESE HERBAL.

knowledge of these fruits; for although these spices were brought into our world about eight centuries ago, even in our times many false reports and errors regarding Cloves are spread and believed, even by those who have served for some time in the Company's business in these regions, and who could not say or relate for certain which are the true and genuine fruits of the Clove tree, or when and where its flowers sprout. Furthermore, there are two other species of the Clove tree, one of which is chiefly to be regarded as a miscarriage or a freak of nature original: "lusus naturae", rather than a distinct species, which shall hereafter be described under the name of Royal Clove. The other is the Wild Clove, differing greatly from the true one, both of which we shall delineate in the following chapters.

Name. The modern Greeks and Latins have called this fruit Caryophyllum; by Carolus Clusius in Book I of Exotics, chapter 16, it is called Caryophyllus, which better suits the tree, just as Malus is said of the tree and Malum of the fruit In Latin, the suffix -us often denotes the tree, while -um denotes the fruit.. However, it must be properly distinguished from the Caryophyllum described by Pliny in Book 12, chapter 7, which is a far different fruit, and in the opinion of Scaliger in Exercise 146, is thought to be what is today called Cubeb. On the contrary, Cloves were not yet known to the Western world in Pliny's time. The Greek physician Paulus Ægineta is the first to make mention of them, calling them Caryophyllon, and in his seventh book he writes thus of it: Caryophyllon (as if one were to say "Nut-leaf") by no means has the substance that the name implies, but they are woody and black flowers, brought from a certain tree in India, having a length of about a (transverse) finger, smelling pleasantly, sharp, slightly bitter, hot, and dry almost to the third degree, which have much use both in food and medicines. The name Caryophyllon was without doubt derived from the ancient Arabic name Karumpfel, or as Garcias thinks in Book 1 of Aromatics, chapter 21, Calafur and Caraful, by which names they are known and identified to this day among the Persians, Arabs, and Turks.

From Caryophyllum the other corrupted European names have their origin, such as Giroffeli among the Italians, Garioffelen among the Dutch, etc. The Portuguese call them Cravos, that is, spikes or nails, just as we now say Nagelen in the Dutch language, and this not improperly from their shape, since they resemble a small nail if the uppermost little head has fallen off. Likewise, the Chinese call them Thenghio, that is, fragrant nails. The modern Malay name is Tsjåncke and Tsjencke, which the Portuguese write as Chamka and Chamque, which name is however Javanese, and perhaps derived from the aforementioned Chinese Thenghio. The ancient Malay names, however, are Bugulawan and Bongulawan. In Amboina they are still called Bubulawan and Bugulawan; in Ternate Bobolawa and Boalawa; in Tidore Gomode. Ripe Cloves, called "mothers," are called Anthophylli by the Latins (it is uncertain for what reason) and Antoffelen in Dutch, but most often Moernagelen Mother-cloves. The Malays call these Polong and Ibu Tsjenke. These Malay and Amboinese names, as well as the aforementioned Caraful and Bonga Lawan, indicate to me that the ancients believed this fruit to be the flower of trees. For in almost all these Indian words the meaning of "flower" is to be found, and it is no wonder that the ancients knew so little of them, since the Javanese and Chinese sold these fruits only to the inhabitants of the northern parts of the world, and allowed no one into the unknown islands of this Eastern Archipelago, persuading others that the fruits grew only in their own country, just as they also persuaded the first Portuguese and Dutch navigators. The small heads occupying the uppermost part of the Cloves are called Cabeletten and Gapaletten by merchants, and the stalks on which the Cloves sit are called Fusti, Fjufti, and Fuftons, or Bastons by the Portuguese, which in spiciness come closest to the Cloves. The first sprouts or buds of the Cloves are called Gagang by the Malays, by which name they also denote those stalks.

Place. This noble fruit in former times had fixed its seat only in the Molucca Islands, and especially in Makian, which is rightly held to be the mother of Cloves, a place situated under the burning equator and in the furthest reaches of the Eastern Ocean, whose name was scarcely known even to neighboring peoples, so that the fame of this noble...