579 



This, however, is a matter for the consideration of the planters, and I 

 am satisfied the Government will be ready to remove all factitious 

 obstacles that stand in the way of their legitimate industry. The 

 account which Rumphius gives of ' the long,' miscalled in our tariff 

 * the wild,' and ' the round,' equally miscalled * cultivated,' is so en- 

 tirely to the point that I shall translate it. It is as follows : — ' The 

 nut itself is well known ; the lower side is flat, and all over it is a lit- 

 tle wrinkled. It is of two forms — the one oblong, the other round, 

 both equally good, but the round usually the hardest. The true nut- 

 meg is one only, but, as just said, of two forms. One tree, for ex- 

 ample, will bear oblong, and another round nuts, a distinction which 

 appears even in the leaves of the tree, one tree having them longer, 

 and another shorter and rounder. Both nuts, however, are equally 

 aromatic, and have the same virtues.' What the natives of the May- 

 layan countries call wild nutmegs are nutmegs (Myristica) only as to 

 genus. Rumphius enumerates six species of this kind, of which he 

 has described two. One only of the six had a slight aromatic fla- 

 vour in the nut, but none at all in the mace, or arillus ; the rest 

 were utterly flavourless. Dr. Wallich informs me that he found five 

 species in Singapore alone, every one wholly vapid and worthless as 

 a condiment. In so far, therefore, as commerce is concerned, there is 

 no such thing as ' a wild nutmeg,' except in the English tariff". It 

 will appear from the price-currents that no distinction into wild or 

 cultivated is made in the trade ; but it would seem that at the Cus- 

 tom-house nutmegs of a long form ai'e imagined to be wild, and ad- 

 mitted at the low, while the round, fancied to be the only cultivated 

 ones, pay the high duty. Neither is there, as we might conclude from 

 the equal quality attributed to them by Rumphius, any difference in 

 their value and appreciation in the English market, the long very often 

 fetching the highest price in bond, caused, no doubt, by their being 

 more applicable, with the low duty, for home consumption. The 

 result of the difference of duty turns out to be highly detrimental to 

 the produce of the British possessions. This consists entirely of 

 round nutmegs, whereas that of the Dutch is composed of both sorts, 

 the long being selected for the English market for the benefit of the 

 lower duty, and finding their way to it through Batavia and Singa- 

 pore, as well as the European ports of Holland. The difference be- 

 tween the two rates of duty of bcl. and 2s. Qd. is, of course, 2s. \cl., so 

 that on two commodities of exactly the same value there may be an 

 excess of 500 per cent, on one of them, and this one happens to be 

 the product of a British possession competing with that of a foreign 



