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Spices

Under this head are ranged those vegetable products which are fragrant to the smell and pungent to the palate. "All the substances classed as spices are the product of tropical climates only; none of our native plants, and no plants that come to maturity in the open air in this climate, possess sufficient aromatic flavour to be reckoned among the spices. The most valuable of these natural productions were originally found in the islands situated in the Indian Ocean, called the Spice Islands or Moluccas, and were probably conveyed from them in the most distant ages." The chief spices are pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mace, ginger, allspice, etc.