Chap. XV.] NUTMEG PLANTATIONS. 333 



chimney ornament in England {Fii?!gia sj>.), is most extra- 

 ordinarily abundant on the shore, at a depth of one or two feet 

 at low water, and with it an allied larger, similarly free-growing 

 coral {Herpefolitha Umax). The Mushroom corals cover the 

 bottom in places in such large quantities, that a cart-load of 

 them might be picked up in a very short time ; I have nowhere 

 seen them so common. 

 ^ I visited one of the Nutmeg Plantations in Great Banda. 

 The nutmeg is the kernel of a fruit very like a peach in 

 appearance, which makes an excellent sweetmeat when pre- 

 served in sugar. The owner of the plantation, a very wealthy 

 Malay native of Banda, told me that about one male tree to 

 every fifty females was planted on the estate ; he had a super- 

 stition that if a nutmeg seed was planted with its flatter side 

 uppermost, it would be more likely to produce a male seedling. 



Formerly, before the Dutch Government renounced its 

 monopoly of the growth of nutmegs in the Moluccas, the trees 

 were stricdy and most jealously confined to the Island of Great 

 Banda. The utmost care was taken that no seeds fit for 

 germination should be carried away from the island, for fear of 

 rival plantations being formed elsewhere ; seeds were, however, 

 often smuggled out. 



The Government destroyed the Nutmeg trees on all the 

 other islands of the group. It was, however, found necessary 

 to send a Commission every year to uproot the young nutmeg 

 trees sown on these islands by the Fruit-Pigeons, called Nut- 

 crackers by the Dutch residents {Carpophaga concinna). 



The various Fruit-Pigeons must have played a most impor- 

 tant part in the dissemination of plants, and especially trees, 

 over the wide region inhabited by them. Sir Charles Lyell,* 

 referring to the transportation of seeds by the agency of birds, 

 noted especially this transportation effected by pigeons, and 

 quotes Captain Cook's A^oyages to the effect that at Tanna 

 " Mr. Foster shot a pigeon " (obviously a Carpophaga), in whose 

 craw was a wild nutmeg, t 



At the Admiralty Islands very large numbers oi a Fruit- 

 Pigeon (Carpophaga rhodifiolcema), were shot by the officers of 

 the " Challenger." Their crops were full of fruits of various 

 kinds, all of which I had failed to find, or reach, in the growing 

 condition in my botanical expeditions. Amongst these fruits 

 were abundance of wild nutmegs, and wild coffee-berries ; many 

 of the fruits were entirely uninjured, and the seeds quite fit for 

 germination. 



No doubt, when frightened or wounded by accident, the 



* " Principles of Geology," lOth Edition, Vol. II., p. 69. 



t "Cook's Second Voyage," Vol. II., p. 69. London, Strachan, 1777. 



