108 Scientific Intelligence — Botany. 



I will reserve for a special article the consideration of the number 

 of plants in flower at the same time, which admit of being grouped 

 together, and of those details of execution which would here be out of 

 place. I must, however, reply to the objection that might be made, that 

 the green of the leaves, which serves, as it were, for a ground for the 

 flowers, destroys the effect of the contrast of the latter. Such, how- 

 ever, is not the case, and, to prove this, it is only necessary to fix on 

 a screen of green silk two kinds of flowers, conformably to the ar- 

 rangement of the coloured stripes, and to look at them at the dis- 

 tance of some ten paces. This admits of a very simple explanation ; 

 for as soon as the eye distinctly and simultaneously sees two colours, 

 the attention is so rivetted that contiguous objects, especially when 

 on a receding plane, and where they are of a sombre colour, and 

 present themselves in a confused manner to the sight, produce but a 

 very feeble impression. — (^Chemical Reports and Memoirs of the 

 Cavendish Society, p. 207.) 



14. The Nutmeg Tree {Myristica officinalis). — J^anda can furnish 

 annually 500,000 lb. of nutmegs and 150,000 1b. of mace: this 

 latter is not, as some persons suppose, the flower of the nutmeg, but 

 the immediate internal cover of the brown shining shell, covering the 

 kernel, which is the nutmeg ; it is found as a beautifully reticulated 

 scarlet arillus between these and the husk or exterior green skin. 



The tree which furnishes these two productions, is one of the most 

 agi'eeable to the eye, at least I thought so, when, for the first time, 

 I saw a number loaded with fruit at Pondokgede, where they border 

 the large walks of the magnificent garden belonging to the Nestor of 

 our eastern possessions, the worthy M. W. Engelhard. The nutmeg 

 tree attains a height of thirty-five to forty feet ; it has some resem- 

 blance to our European pear-tree ; its leaf is of a deep and shining 

 green. Commencing to bear fruit about its ninth year, the tree 

 produces, during more than hali' a century, if care be taken to shelter 

 it properly, which is done at Banda, by placing it in plantations of 

 canari trees, or of wild nutmegs, which the inhabitants CdSlpala boeig ; 

 these have the same leaf and flowei-, but they give no fruit. 



When the flower of the nutmeg falls, it is replaced by the nut ; 

 this requires several months to attain maturity, when it is of the size 

 and the form of an apricot ; its skin, of a yellowish-green, opens and 

 displays the nutmeg, covered with its mace, of a beautiful red colour. 

 The average annual produce of a tree is calculated at 5 or 6 lb. of 

 nuts; there are some, however, which give from 15 to 20 lb. Al- 

 though the nutmeg bears during the greater part of the year, the prin- 

 cipal crop is in August, and a second, in November and December. 

 These crops are liable to turn out more or less good. Good nuts are 

 sometimes ill provided with mace, and often, on the contrary, very 

 inferior nuts are accompanied by a superior mace. 



The nuts, carefully withdrawn from their green extei ior skin, and 

 from the mace, are exposed to the smoke during two or three months 

 upon frames or hurdles, in buildings constructed for the purpose 



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