Besides these, there is the Sundal Malam, or Polianthes Tuberosa.  This flower, being the same with our own tuberose, can have no place among those that are unknown in Europe; but I mention it for its Malay name, which signifies “Intriguer of the night,” and is not inelegantly conceived.  The heat of this climate is so great, that few flowers exhale their sweets in the day; and this in particular, from its total want of scent at that time, and the modesty of its colour, which is white, seems negligent of attracting admirers, but as soon as night comes on, it diffuses its fragrance, and at once compels the attention, and excites the complacency, of all who approach it.

These are all sold about the streets every evening at sunset, either strung upon a thread, in wreaths of about two feet long, or made up into nosegays of different forms, either of which may be purchased for about a half-penny.  Besides these, there are, in private gardens, many other sweet flowers, which are not produced in a sufficient quantity to be brought to market.  With a mixture of these flowers, and the leaves of a plant called Pandang, cut into small pieces, persons of both sexes fill their hair and their clothes, and with the same mixture indulge a much higher luxury by strewing it on their beds; so that the chamber in which they sleep breathes the richest and purest of all odours, unallayed by the fumes which cannot but arise where the sleeper lies under two or three blankets and a quilt, for the bed covering here is nothing more than a single piece of fine chintz.

Before I close my account of the vegetable productions of this part of India, I must take some notice of the spices.  Java originally produced none but pepper.  This is now sent from hence into Europe to a great value, but the quantity consumed here is very small:  The inhabitants use Capsicum, or, as it is called in Europe, Cayan pepper, almost universally in its stead.  Cloves and nutmegs, having been monopolized by the Dutch, are become too dear to be plentifully used by the other inhabitants of this country, who are very fond of them.  Cloves, although they are said originally to have been the produce of Machian, or Bachian, a small island far to the eastward, and only fifteen miles to the northward of the line, and to have been from thence disseminated by the Dutch, at their first coming into these parts, over all the eastern islands, are now confined to Amboina, and the small isles that lie in its neighbourhood; the Dutch having, by different treaties of peace between them and the conquered kings of all the other islands, stipulated, that they should have only a certain number of trees in their dominions; and in future quarrels, as a punishment for disobedience and rebellion, lessened the quantity, till at last they left them no claim to any.  Nutmegs have in a manner been extirpated in all the islands except their first native soil, Banda, which easily supplies every nation upon earth,