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Cloves to mull, mask and numb

Sweet, pungent, warm, woody: cloves smell and taste like Christmas. But there’s much more to this spice than that.

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Images

  • Two parrots perched on a cashew-nut tree branch. Coloured etching.
  • A Japanese walnut (Juglans ailantifolia): fruiting tree branch with separate opened fruit and nuts. Watercolour.
  • A coffee tree (Coffea species), nutmeg plant (Myristica fragrans) and cashew nut tree (Anacardium occidentale): flowers and fruit. Coloured engraving, c. 1827.
  • Cashew nut tree (Anacardium occidentale): fruiting and flowering branch. Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1796, after J. Ihle.
  • A workshop in which oils are made from trees, nuts, berries etc. for foodstuffs and medicines. Woodcut by J. Amman.
  • Animals and plants from the East Indies, including chinese citron or natsumikan, jak fruit, nam-nam tree, bilimbi tree, betel nuts and filander. Line engraving after C. de Bruins, 1706.
  • Pinus mugo Turra, Pinaceae Mountain pine. Distribution: Mountain regions in south and central Europe. Source of pine cone syrup used in cooking. Pine trees in general have a small edible pine nut in the pine cone, which Lyte (1578) writes are 'good for the lungs, they cleanse the breast, and cause the fleme to be spit out: also they nourish well and engender good blood, and for this cause they are good for such as have the cough.' He wrote that it was used for burns, wounds, dysentery, and as a diuretic. Quincy says of fir (Pinus) cones that they strengthen the genital parts, and increase the quantity of seed, or increase Desire without adding to Ability or Performance. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Six pictures of foliage illustrating the general character of two trees - the plane (Platanus species) and walnut (Juglans regia). Lithograph after G. Barnard, c. 1849.
  • A hazel or filbert plant (Corylus species): fruiting branch with separate nut and leaf. Watercolour.
  • Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans): stem with fruit and nut and floral segments. Coloured lithograph by C. Rosenberg, c. 1850, after himself.
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