in NUTMEGS AND MACE 113 



the same time to allow the plant sufficient light, and 

 the advantages of light rain, and dew. The shade can 

 be removed in ten days or a fortnight at latest, or before 

 this if the plant has pushed up its shoots, so as to touch 

 the covering. 



The time for planting should be by preference the 

 beginning of the rainy season in countries where the 

 seasons are distinct. Planting in the dry season is not 

 giving the plant a fair chance, and can only be success- 

 ful by a regular system of watering every evening. 



Watering is sometimes necessary for the young 

 plants for the first few days after transplanting, but 

 seldom unless the weather proves very dry. 



In planting under shade, unless the weather is ex- 

 ceptionally hot, and by chance the plants are too much 

 exposed, additional shading is of course not required, 

 nor indeed is watering. But the planter, visiting the 

 seedlings on the second or third day, will be able to 

 judge by their appearance as to whether additional 

 shade or water is required. 



Shading. The nutmeg trees in Banda are cultivated 

 in alleys beneath big canary -nut trees (Canarium edule), 

 but the trees in the Penang and Province Wellesley 

 plantations, and in fact all over the Malay Peninsula, 

 were grown quite in the open, without any shading at 

 all. Indeed, on the steep slopes of the Penang hills, 

 it would be difficult to shade them in any way. The 

 hills here are terraced, and the .terraces supported with 

 granite boulders, and there is little room for shading. 



It is to this want of shade that Wallace and others, 

 who have seen the Banda trees, attribute the collapse 

 of the industry in Singapore, and to a large extent in 

 Penang, in 1860. This, I do not think was directly 

 the cause, which is explained under the account of pests, 

 but I think it is clear that trees do grow better for 

 shading, to a certain extent. The nutmeg is not a tree 

 of open country, but a jungle tree, and it is certainly 

 unnatural for it to grow in bare ground with no shade. 

 The heat on the Penang and Province Wellesley hills 



