The clove-tree is rather slender, and is from twelve to thirty or even forty feet high, having small branches, with tapering leaves about five inches long and two broad, which smell strong of cloves, when rubbed between the fingers.  The cloves grow out at the tips of the branches, ten, twelve, or fourteen in a cluster, being white at first, then green, and lastly of a dark copper colour, in which state they are ripe and fit for gathering.  At this period, they spread cloths or sheets on the ground round the bottom of the tree to a good distance, and shake the tree, when all the ripe cloves fall down.  This is repeated every six or seven days for four or five times, till all the cloves have ripened and are shaken off.  The usual time of gathering is October and February, those got in October, which is the end of their winter, being called winter cloves, and are not accounted so strong and good as the others.  These are commonly preserved in small jars of about a quart each, of which great quantities are sent to various parts of the world.  Those gathered in February are termed summer cloves, being better and stronger than the others, as ripening in the best part of the summer; whereas the former have not above a month of fair weather, all the rest of their winter season, which is our summer, being rainy and cloudy, so that the cloves want sun to ripen them.  It is a common opinion, but extremely erroneous, that cloves, nutmegs, and mace grow all on one tree.  One clove-tree commonly produces sixty, seventy, or eighty pounds of cloves in one season; and every sixth year they are sure to have a double crop.

There are a vast number of clove-trees on this island, which are carefully looked after, and a register of them is kept in the books of the company, being all numbered once every year, and they are not allowed to increase beyond a certain limited number, for fear of lessening the price, all beyond being cut down.  All these trees belong to the Company, or the free burgesses, every burgess having only a fixed number; and if any one is found to have more than his allowance, he is severely fined, and all his trees forfeited to the company.  Besides, the burgesses are bound to deliver the whole produce of their trees to the company at six-pence the pound.  If any freeman or other is convicted of having sold or conveyed cloves from the island, to the value of ten pounds, his whole property is forfeited to the company, and he becomes a slave for life.  The inhabitants used formerly to cheat the Dutch in the sale of their cloves, in the following manner.  They hung up their cloves in a large sheet by the four corners, and set a large tub of water underneath, which the cloves, being of a very hot and dry nature, drew up by degrees, and thus made a large addition to their weight.  But the Dutch are now too cunning for them, as they always try the cloves, by giving them a small filip on the head with the forefinger:  if thoroughly ripe, and no deceit has been used, the head breaks off like a piece of thin brittle glass; but if watered, the clove is tough, and will sooner bend than break.