290 



MYRISTICACEM. 



[CH A.P. 



ovary as a false pericarp. In some species the truit is 

 succulent ; that of E. orientalis is used in dessert under the 

 name of Trebizonde Dates. 



The Family is a very small one, and principally confined 

 to the Old World. 



90. Natural Order, Myristicacece. — The Nutmeg Family. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves, and incon- 

 spicuous dioecious flowers. Fruit one-celled, one-seeded. 

 Albumen ruminated. 



Type — The Nutmeg-tree {Myristica fragrans) 

 An introduced tree, thirty to forty feet high, with alternate 

 entire leaves, small, yellowish, supra-axillary, dioecious 

 flowers, and one-seeded, drupaceous (dehiscent) fruits. 



Observe the acrid juice of the bark, staining red : the 

 scarlet aril, forming a coarse network over the seed, laid 

 bare, by the fleshy pericarp dehiscing, when ripe, in two 

 valves : the albumen, interrupted by folded plates of a 

 dift'ereni tissue ; such albumen is said to be ruminated {see 

 Custara-Apple Family, p. 151): the spreading (divaricate) 

 cotyledons of the minute embryo. 



A small tropical Family, including but few species of 

 importance besides that employed as Type, the seed 0/ 



