Myrktica. dioecia monadelphia. 845 



flowers of some other species o( Jlyristica which he received 

 from tlie Isle of France, for the true nutmeg. Consequently 

 the sort they have been long- cultivating there, with so much 

 care, is not the real Banda nutmeg, which the Dutch so 

 long and so effectually monopolized. For 1 can scarcely think 

 it possible that any Botanist could consider the thick, firmly 

 consolidated filament of the male flowers, to be composed 

 of from six to twelve smaller, partible filaments, joined in 

 one bundle, for there is not the smallest rudiment of any small- 

 er filaments connecting the linear anthers to the column, or fi- 

 lament, in the centre; nor are the anthers themselves united, 

 scarcely even the two lobes which compose the pairs, as I 

 have called them. 



The foregoing description, and accompanying drawing, 

 are taken from many, healthy growing trees in the Honour- 

 able Company's Botanic garden as well as from numerous 

 specimens, preserved in spirits, and otherwise collected, and 

 sent from Great Banda Neyra, Pulo-ay, and the Molucca 

 Islands, while they were in the possession of the English from 

 1796 till 1802. At Bencoolen, where this tree was introduc- 

 ed in 1798, they have grown with the greate>t luxuriance ; 

 for in five years they had arrived at from ten to fourteen 

 feet in height. In October and November 1802, two hun- 

 dred and forty-seven trees out of about six hundred, blossom- 

 ed. About half of these were male, the rest female, and 

 ripened their fruit in February and March 1803. In the 

 Botanic garden at Calcutta, where the young trees are 

 about the same age, the most luxuriant ones are from six to ten 

 feet high, and in April 1803 three male trees only blossom- 

 ed for the first time. At Prince of Wales' Island, where by 

 far the most extensive plantations are formed, they are in a 

 middle state between Bencoolen and Bengal, but do not by 

 any means thrive so well as in Sumatra, where they are per- 

 fectly at home, in every respect, and earlier than in the Mo- 

 lucca Islands. 



