NUTMEGS AND MACE. 19 



Dutch or Batavian Nutmegs are limed and are lower 

 in value than the Penang sort. 



Singapore Nutmegs are a rougher, unlimed narrower sort, 

 of somewhat less value than the Dutch. 



" Long " or " Wild Nutmegs," or "Male " nutmeg, Nux 

 myristicamas, Clusius {JShix moscliatafrudu o&Zon(/(9,C.Bauhin),is the 

 produce of Myristica fatua, Houttuyn. The oldest works making 

 mention of the nutmeg speak of several kinds w^hich must have 

 attracted the attention of the earliest Dutch settlers. In 1596, 

 before the conquest of Banda, Linshchoten mentioned two kinds 

 of nutmeg — "round" and "long"; and in 1605 Clusius gave 

 dra wrings of a fruit branch of Nux myristica-mas, as well as the 

 ordinary nutmeg. In several of the older drawings of Piso and 

 Yalentini the leaves of the true nutmeg are incorrectly associated 

 with the fruit of this second variety. However, it is on t-he 

 whole clear what is meant, and there is no doubt that all these 

 remarks apply to the Myristica fatua, Houtt., a tree which 

 certainly grows wild in Banda and Amboyna ; perhaps, also, in 

 other of the Molucca islands. Its fruit is scarcely at all aromatic 

 when fresh, and less so in the dry state, while its mace smells 

 disagreeable and not aromatic. The fruit is therefore only used 

 medicinally in that island for dysentery, headache, or as an 

 aphrodisiac. 



The fruit is elongated, ellipsoidal, rusty, tomentose ; in shape 

 it is like a date and about IJ inches to 2 inches in length. 

 The shell is hard and somewhat brittle ; internally of a dull 

 greyish-w^hite. The seed is elongated, ellipsoidal, covered by a 

 membranaceo-fleshy, orange-coloured, insipid arillode (mace) ; 

 outer coat (testa) dark-brown, hard ; nucleus acerb, slightly 

 .aromatic, greyish ash - coloured, cylindrical, ellipsoidal, rugous, 

 marked with a furrow. 



iVIalabar Nutmegs are the produce of M. Malabarica, Lamk.; 

 Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 269 : Eheede Hort. Mai. iv., t. 5 (PJieede calls it 

 Panam-palca). Its nucleus resembles a date in size and shape. 

 It is very closely allied to the " Long nutmeg " {M. fatua), Houtt., 

 and has comparatively little flavour or odour, even less than 

 the long nutmeg, with which it is frequently mixed as an 

 -adulterant; in fact, both these nutmegs are mixed with true 

 nutmegs {M. fragrans), and their mace with true mace, selling 



