Spanish name, Pimento.
French, Piment des Anglais Toute epice Poivre de la Jamiaque.
German, Nelkenpfeffer, Nelkenkopfe, Neugewurz.
The pimento tree belongs to the myrtle family and is one of the most beautiful trees known as an evergreen. It grows to a height of from twenty to thirty feet and occasionally it reaches a height of forty feet. It is slender, straight, and upright, with many branches at its top. The trunk is covered by a smooth, gray, or ashen-brown aromatic bark which peels off in flakes as the tree grows. The leaves are opposite, stalked from four to six inches long, and are oblong, lanceolate, and somewhat tapering. The petioles are blunt and rather emarginated at the apex, and entire, smooth on both surfaces, with deep-green, pale, and minute glands, dotted beneath, with the midrib prominent. They are particularly aromatic when fresh, abounding in essential oil which is the aromatic property of all kinds of fragrant fruits.
This tree is a native of the West Indies, and is found most abundantly on the limestone hills on the Island of Jamaica. It is the only common spice having its origin in the New World. It is found, but not in abundance, in most of the West India Islands, as well as in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. It takes its name, pimento, from the Spanish word for pepper. This name was given to it by early explorers of the New World because of its resemblance to pepper corn. It is called allspice because of the combination, or of the supposed combination, of various flavors.
Some writers have claimed that it is a child of Nature, and that it defies cultivation, but this is a mistake, as may be seen by comparing the illustrations of the garden berry ([Fig. 1]) with those of the wild berry ([Fig. 2]). It is seldom cultivated, however, and it is found at its best growing wild 6,000 feet above the sea and very near the coast line, on a poor rocky lime or chalky soil, with a very shallow surface mold.
The tree will not do well in a clay or sandy or marshy soil, but the soil must be kept well drained, and a hot, dry climate is the best. Since the pimento seeds are scattered by birds, the trees are found in greater or less numbers in many parts of the Island of Jamaica. They sometimes are found in groups of from five to twenty, and again in great forests. It is the predominating tree on the island and is seldom found alone.
After the tree has obtained a certain growth the underbrush and other wood, with some of the pimento trees, are cut out, leaving the trees from twenty to twenty-five feet apart, as they will not yield so well if left closer. It is in this way that the beautiful pimento walks (Pi-men-to-wak) are formed which we read of in Jamaica.
The pimento tree flowers twice each year, in July and April, but it bears only one crop annually and begins to bear when three years old, and arrives at maturity at seven years, when it abundantly repays the patience of the planter.
In July the tree is covered with small greenish-white fragrant flowers of four reflected petals. The flowers are in bunches or trichotomous panicles at the extremities of the branches with a calyx divided into four roundish segments. The filaments are numerous and longer than the corolla, spreading, and of the same color as the petals, supporting roundish white anthers. The style is short and single and erect with an obtuse stigma. As the tree branches symmetrically, and has a very luxuriant foliage, its rich green leaves and profusion of small white flowers give a very handsome appearance. The air is freighted with its fragrance for quite a long distance, and every breeze which disturbs its branches conveys the delicious odor.