MYRISTICA MOSCHATA. 27 
MYRISTICA MOSCHATA. 
THUNBURG. 
NUTMEG TREE. 
Sex. Syst.—Dicecia, Monadelphia. 
Gen. Cuar.—Filowers dicecious. Calyx bracteolate, three-toothed. Male. Filaments monadelphous. Anthers 
6-10, connate. Female. Ovary simple. Style none. Stigma two-lobed. Pericarp fleshy, two-valved, one-seeded. 
Seed enveloped in a fleshy arillus. (Lindley.) 
Specir. Cuar.—A dicecious tree. Trunk from 20 to 25 feet high. Bark greyish-brown, tolerably smooth, 
abounding ina yellow juice. Leaves aromatic, from three to six inches long, subbifarious, oblong, approaching to 
elliptical, glabrous, rather obtuse at the base, acuminate, quite entire, above dark green, and somewhat glossy, beneath 
much paler, but neither pulverulent nor downy. Pettoles from one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, plane above. 
Racemes axillary, subumbellate, sometimes forked or compound. Peduncies and pedicels glabrous, the latter having a 
quickly deciduous, ovate bract at its summit, often pressed close to the flower. Male flowers, three or five, or more on 
apeduncle. Calyx bracteolate, thick and fleshy, clothed with a very indistinct reddish pubescence, dingy pale yellow, 
cut into three, erect, or erecto-patent teeth. Filaments incorporated into a thickened, whitish cylinder, about as long 
as the calyx, the upper half covered by about ten linear oblong two-celled anthers, free at their base, opening longitu- 
dinally. Female flowers scarcely different from the male, except that the pedicel is very frequently solitary. Pista 
solitary, shorter than the calyx, broadly ovate, a little tapering upwards into a short style, and bearing a two-lobed 
persistent stigma. Fruit fleshy, nearly spherical, of the size, and somewhat of the shape of a smal] pear; flesh astring- 
ent, yellowish, almost white within, four or five lines thick, opening into two, nearly equal, longitudinal valves. 
Arillus thick, between horny and fleshy, much lacerated, folded and anastomosing towards the extremity, enveloping 
the nut almost entirely, and so tightly as to form inequalities on its surface; when fresh, brilliant scarlet, when dry, 
much more horny, of a yellow brown colour, and very brittle. Nut broadly ovate, or oval; the shell very hard, 
rugged, dark brown, glossy, about half a line thick, pale and smooth within. Seed or nutmeg oval, pale brown, quite 
smooth when first deprived of its shell, but soon becoming shrivelled, so as to have irregular, vertical lines or furrows 
on its surface. Albumen firm, but fleshy, whitish, but so traversed with red brown veins, which abound in oil, as 
to appear beautifully marbled. Near the base of the albumen, and embedded in a cavity in its substance, is the em- 
bryo, which is small, fleshy, yellowish white, rounded below, where is the radicle; its cotyledons of two large some- 
what foliaceous plicate lobes, in the centre of which is seen the plumule. (Lindley.) 
The fruit of this tree affords two important spices,—the arillus, constituting mace, and the kernel, the nutmeg. 
ita es ie a _- of the Moluccas, especially the islands of Amboyna and Banda, where it is cultivated, and 
icles ou. og eavoured to concentrate It. The natural limits of the geographical distribution of the nutmeg 
Saini x ‘0 _ —— of the clove. This tree is found even beyond the limit of the Archipelago, having been 
ea ‘cee ag xe and, in the southern peninsula of India, and in Cochin China. The produce of all these coun- 
isin i “i ~ : erly tasteless, and without flavour.” The Dutch had dispossessed the Portuguese of their pos- 
Mite thks 66 00 . “2a islands between 1524 and 1539, and from that period to 1615, furnished annually to Europe 
i Slices % Ate 8. of nutmegs, and 150,000 lbs. of mace. More recently the quantity which is brought from 
Bes eh — because the plant has been introduced and cultivated elsewhere, viz., the Isle of 
kof the aes was carried in 1720-2, by Poivre,) India, Martinique, Cayenne, &c., in opposition to the precau- 
a iS ne — The mace of Amboyna, however, is most sought for in consequence of its superiority. 
253,000 Ibs ere exported from the Moluccas only 215,000 lbs. of nutmegs, while the amount of mace was 
enegty “toes whom the present details have, for the most part, been obtained, states that in the Indian islands 
east eight kinds of nutmegs, which appear to be only varieties, though generally permanent ones. The 
onl im oe ; : 
aS . portant distinction is effected by culture; all the cultivated ones are highly flavoured, the wild ones much 
