Order loo. Myristicece. 277 



10 to 15 anthers united in a column, female flowers larger and 

 fewer, fruit olong, pubescent, 2 or 3 inches long. RdnjaiphaL 



Dense woods of the Ghauts (D.). Konkan, Canara, and Malabar 

 only (H.). The aril of this is called Mdyapatri or Rdmpatri. 



* M. alternata, apparently like the above, but young shoots and 

 petioles covered with rusty meal, the male flowers fascicled on a 

 short peduncle, perianth roundish, anthers 12 on the toothed edge 

 of a stalked peltate disk, fruit ovate, beaked, rusty, 1% inch long. 

 Ghauts (!>.). Deep ravines at Khandalla, but not common (G.). 

 He calls it a very handsome tree, with something of the habit of 

 Michelia champaca. 



" The nutmeg tree (M. fragrans, officinalis, or moschata) has a one- 

 seeded fruit like a peach, that splits open and exposes the nutmeg 

 (jaiphal), surrounded by a brilliant scarlet aril ; this aril, which is 

 mace (jayapatri) no doubt attracts pigeons, which swallow the nut- 

 megs, and transport them from island to island of the Moluccas" 

 Hooker. Aromatic fruits, more or less resembling the nutmeg, are 

 found in other species. 



In the middle ages and later Arabia was looked on as the land of 

 spices and perfumes, because these sweet-smelling products came 

 to Europe through Arabia, or by the intervention of Arab merchants. 



" All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." 



Macbeth. 



But when the Portuguese in the sixteenth century had possession 

 of the Moluccas, they got the name of the spice islands, and when 

 the Dutch ousted the Portuguese, these islands were called the 

 gold mines of the Dutch East India Company. To keep up the price 

 the Dutch forced the native rulers to restrict the number of all 

 spice-producing trees, and in many cases even to destroy great 

 numbers of them. They thus managed to confine the production of 

 each sort of spice to one or two islands. Raynal, Cook, Sfc. 



ORDER 101. LAURINE^l. Laurels. 



Trees or shrubs (except Oassythd}, leaves alternate, gland- 

 dotted, without stipules, flowers regular, perianth tubular, 

 usually 6-cleft, stamens on the tube in 2 or more rows, filaments 

 flattened, some of them often with 2 glands at the base, anthers 

 erect, ovary superior, at the base of the tube. 



The trees and shrubs of this order are generally fragrant and valu- 

 able. They mostly possess in the bark and other parts an oil, which 

 in different species has either stimulating or sedative qualities, 

 represented in their maximum intensity by cinnamon and camphor 

 respectively. From the beauty and celebrity of the true laurels, the 

 name has been given to various trees of other orders, as the laurel 

 and Portugal laurel of English gardens, which both belong to the 



