bOG ' MYRISTICEiE. 



formed of a short radicle with cup-shaped cotyledons, whose slit and 

 curled edges penetrate into the albumen. The tissue of the seed can be 

 cut with equal fecility in any direction. It is extremely oily, and has a 

 delicious aromatic fragrance, with a spicy rather acrid taste. 



Microscopic Structure — The testa consists mainly of loug, thin, 

 radially arranged, rigid cells, which are closely interlaced and do uot 

 exhibit any distinct cavities. The endopleura which forms the adhering 

 coat of the kernel and penetrates into it, consists of soft-walled, red- 

 brown tissue, with small scattered bundles of vessels. In the outer 

 layers the endopleura exhibits small collapsed cells; but the tissue 

 which fills the folds that dip into the interior consists of much larger 

 cells. The tissue of the albumen is formed of soft-walled parenchyrae, 

 which is densely filled with conspicuous starch -grains, and with fat, 

 partly crystallized. Among the prismatic crystals of fat, large thick 

 rhombic or six-sided tables may often be observed. With these are 

 associated grains of albuminoid matter, partly crystallized. 



Chemical Composition — After starch and albuminoid matter, tlie 

 principal constituent of nutmeg is the fat, which makes up about a fourth 

 of its weight, and is known in commerce by the incorrect name of Oil 

 of Mace (see p. 507). 



The volatile oil, to which the smell and taste of nutmegs are chiefly 

 due, amounts to between 3 and 8 per cent.,^ and consists, according to 

 Cloez (1864), almost entirely of a hydrocarbon, CioHi*^, boiling^ at 165' 

 C, which Gladstone (1872), who assigns it the same composition, calls 

 Myristicene. The latter chemist found in the crude oil an oxygenated 

 oil, Myvistlcol, of very difficult purification and possibly subject to 

 change during the process of rectifying. It has a high boiling point 

 (about 220° C. ?) and the characteristic odour of nutmeg; unlike caryol 

 with which it is isomeric, it does not form a crystalline compound with 

 hydrosulphuric acid. 



Oil of nutmegs, distilled in London by Messrs. Herring and Co., 

 examined in column 200 mm. long, we found to deviate the ray ot 

 polarized light, 15°-3 to the right ; that of the Long Nntraeg (Mymtim 

 fatiia Houtt.}, furnished to us by the same firm, deviated 28 7 to 

 the right. 



From tlie facts recorded by Gmelin,' it would appear that oil of 

 -• ^ •■ ■ " ' nr.LLnA.r We are 



ystall 



utmec' 



during the latter part of the process of distilling both common and bng 

 nutmegs. It is a greyish greasy mass, which by repeated crysta liza- 

 tions from spirit of wine, we obtained in the form of brilliant, coloui- 

 less scales, fusible at 54° C, and still possessing the odour of n 

 The crystals are readily soluble in benzol, bisulphide of carbon or 

 chloroform, sparingly in petroleum ether; tlieir solution in «P"'i'^J'^ 

 jvine has a decidedly acid reaction, and is devoid of rotatory power, tij 

 boilmg them with alcohol, sp. gr. 0843, and anhydrous carbonate, oi 



J,^Ji!^f^- ^^"^''S^ ^ Co. oi London have Messrs, Schimmel & Co., ^''^P^f^^l 

 n ormed lis, t lat 2874 ]b. of nutmegs (lis- (1878) that they obtain as much as from 



llloiZ ,' ^'^^^^^^^y 'Afforded 07 lb. of to 8 per cent. 



essential oil, z.e. 2-33 per cent. But ^ Chemistry, liv. (i860) 3S9. 



