MYKIJSTICA. 503 



The words Mtwer, Macar, Mdchir or Macir, occurring in the writ- 

 ings of Scribonius Largus, Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny are thought 

 by Martius to refer in each instance to mace. But that the sub- 

 stance designated by these names was not mace, but the bark of a tree 

 growing in Malabar, was pointed out by Acosta nearly three centuries 

 ago, and by many subsequent writers, and, as we think, with perfect 

 correctness.* 



Nutmegs and mace were imported from India at an early date by 

 the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. Aetius, who 

 was resident at the court of Constantinople about the year 540, appears 

 to have been acquainted with the nutmeg, if that at least is intended 

 by the term Xaces Indicw, prescribed together with cloves, spikenard, 

 costus, calamus aromaticus and sandal wood, as an ingredient of the 

 S iifumigiinii mosch a t iim^^ 



Masudi,^ who appeai-s to have visited India in A.D. 916-920, pointed 

 out that the nutmeg, like cloves, areca nut and sandal wood, was a pro- 

 duct of the eastern islands of the Indian Archipelago. The Arabian 

 geographer Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, men- 

 tions both nutmegs and mace as articles of import into Aden;* and 

 again " Xois nioiiscades " are among the spices on Avhich duty was levied 

 at Acre in Palestine, circa A.D. 1180.^ About a century later, another 

 Arabian author, Kazwini,* expressly named the Moluccas as the native 

 country of the spices under notice. 



The Sanskrit name of the nutmeg-tree most commonly in use, also 

 with Susruta, is Jati (Dr. Rice). 



One of the earliest references to the use of nutmegs in Europe 

 occurs in a poem written about 1195, by Petrus D'Ebulo,' describing 

 the entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI., prior to his coronation 

 in April 1191. On this occasion the streets were fumigated with 

 aromatics, which are enumerated in the following line: — 



ft 



"Balsama, thus, aloe, myristica, cjnuiaina, nardns." 



By the end of the 12th century, both nutmegs and mace were found 

 in Northern Europe, — even in Denmark, as may be inferred from the 

 allusion to them in the writings of Harpestreng.* In England, mace, 

 though well known, was a very costly spice, its value between A.D. 

 1284 and 1377 being about 4.§. 7(?. per lb., while the average price of a 

 sheep during the same period was but Is. bd., and of a cow 9s. od.^ It 

 was also dear in France, for in the Corapte de V execution of the will of 

 Jeanne d'Evi-eux, queen of France, in 1372, six ounces of mace are 



^ Merat et De Lens, Diet, de Mat. M6d. ' In the work quoted at p. 282, note 3. 



iv. (1832) 173. — The tree is, we think, * Kosmographie, ubersetzt von Ethe, i. 



Ailantus malabarica DC, order of the (1869) 227. 



Simarubeae. ^ Carmen de viotibus siculis, Basil., 1746. 



- Aetius, tetrabiblos iv. serm. 4. c. 122. 23. — A new edition of this work, by Prof. 



— It must hoM-ever be admitted that 2iux Winkelmann, was published in 1874. 



Jndica in mediieval authors usually signifies ^ Danske Laegebog, quoted by Meyer, 



the Coco -nut, but also sometimes Xux Geschichte der Botanik, Hi. (1856) 537 . 



vomica or even Areca nut. For particulars ^ Rogers, //?</. of Agriculture and Prices 



see Flnckiger, Documentezur Oeschicht^der in England, i. (1866) 361-362. 628. — It is 



Pharm. 1876. 18. remarkable that nM^»i«i/s are not mentioned, 



* Les prairies d'o); i. (1861) 341. though mace is named repeatedly. 



L 



* (Jeographie, i. (1836) 51. 



