NUTMEGS AND MACE 99 



NAMES OF THE PLANT AND ITS PRODUCTS 



The nutmeg is known in France as Noix Muscade ; 

 in Germany as Muskatnuss. In Malay, Pala ; Bali, Pa. 

 In Tamil, Jadicai ; Hindu, Jaephal ; Sanskrit, Jatiphala ; 

 Persian, Jouzbewa ; Arabic, Jouzalteib. 



Mace is Macis in French, Muskatbliite in German, 

 Bunga Pala (flowers of nutmeg) in Malay. 



HISTORY 



Nutmeg and mace do not appear to have been 

 known to the Greeks and Eomans, though von Martius 

 (Flora Braziliensis, fasc. 11, 12, 133) maintains that 

 it was alluded to in the Comedies of Plautus. The 

 words macer, macar, or machir found in the works of 

 Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny evidently do not refer to 

 mace, but to the bark of a tree, probably Ailantus 

 malabaricus of Malabar. These spices, however, were 

 imported from the East Indies by the Arabian traders 

 in early days, and Aetius, resident at the court of 

 Constantinople about A.D. 540, mentions Nuces Indicae 

 among other aromatics, such as cloves, costus, and spike- 

 nard, as an ingredient of the Suffumigium moschatum. 



Masudi, who visited India in A.D. 916-920, pointed 

 out that the nutmeg, like cloves and sandal-wood, was 

 obtained from the eastern islands of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, and about the thirteenth century the Arabian 

 writer Kaswini identified the Moluccas as the source of 

 the nutmeg. 



The first record of nutmegs in Europe is in a poem 

 written about 1195 by Petrus D'Ebulo, describing how 

 at the entry of the Emperor Henry VI. into Rome, 

 before his coronation, the streets were fumigated with 

 nutmegs and other aromatics. By the end of the 

 twelfth century the spices were both well known in 

 Europe, but very costly, for it is recorded that about 

 1284, 1 Ib. of mace cost 4s. 7d. the value then of three 

 sheep, or half as much as a cow. 



