Allspice
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Allspice. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a kind of pepper, consist ing of of the dried berries of pimenta officinalis (myrtus pimenta of Linnæus, eugenia pimenta of De Candolle), a tree belonging to the order myrtaceæ (myrtle blooms). It is imported almost entirely from Jamaica, and is hence called Jamaica pepper. It is termed also pimento, from Spanish pimienta pepper; its berries in shape and flavor resembling peppercorns. The trees are cultivated in Jamaica in plantations called pimento walks. Their unripe fruits, and, to a lesser extent, all parts of them, abound in an essential oil, which has the same composition as oil of cloves; of this the berries yield from 3 to 5 per cent. It is a powerful irritant, and is often used to allay toothache. The alltooth spice imported into this country is derived from pimenta officinalis, and not from pimenta acris. The word is also the English name of the genus calycanthus, and especially of C. floridus, which has a scent like the pimento tree, grows in Carolina, and is often called the Carolina allspice. Japan allspice is the English name of the genus chimonanthus, which belongs to the calycanthaceæ; wild allspice is benzoin odoriferum, a species of the laurel order.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the dried berry of the pimento tree. It is also called Jamaica pepper. The pimento is a small tree of beautiful appearance. It grows wild throughout the West Indies , especially in Jamaica, where it is found up to a height of 4,000 feet above the sea. It prefers a limestone soil. The name allspice comes from the notion that the berry combines the flavor of the clove, cinnamon; and nutmeg. As the pimento berry loses its pungency when ripe, the berries are gathered unripe and dried carefully on floors, with frequent winnowing to prevent molding. When dry, the berries are sent to market in bags. Jamaica exports half a million dollars worth of pimento or allspice yearly. It is much used in cookery and to disguise the taste of medicines. Choice olives are sent to market filled with red pimento. See Spice ; Pepper ; Nutmeg ; Cinnamon
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The botany has been tidied up since these entries: the tree Collier's called Pimenta officinalis in 1921 (and listed under three other Latin names) is now universally Pimenta dioica, and the essential oil's kinship with oil of cloves is explained by eugenol, the compound both share and which still turns up in dental preparations, as the old "allay toothache" use hints. Aiton's 1910 remark that "choice olives are sent to market filled with red pimento" conflates two unrelated plants: the stuffing is pimiento, a mild Capsicum pepper from the Americas, not the Jamaican berry. Jamaica is still the byword for quality allspice, though Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras now also grow and export it commercially. Otherwise the descriptions of unripe berries picked, dried and winnowed on floors in the pimento walks would be recognised by a grower today.
Written for this edition, 2026.