The Clove Spice Tree.
Caryophyllus aromaticus.
A BEAUTIFUL tree, native of the warm countries; it grows twenty or thirty feet high, and very much branched. The bark is greyish; the leaves are like those of the bay-tree, but twice as large; they are of a bright shining green, and stand upon long foot-stalks; the flowers are not very large, but of a beautiful blue colour, and the cups that contain them are oblong and firm; these are the cloves of the shops. They gather them soon after the flowers are fallen; when they suffer them to remain longer on the tree, they grow large, and swell into a fruit as big as an olive.
The cloves are excellent against disorders of the head, and of the stomach; they are warm, cordial, and strengthening; they expel wind, and are a good remedy for the colic. The oil of cloves is made from these by chemists; it cures the tooth ach; a bit of lint being wetted, with it, and laid to the tooth.
