MYRISTICA. 505 



May and June. The fruit as it splits is gathered by means of a hook 

 attached to a long stick, the pericarp removed, and the mace carefully 

 stripped off, The nuts are then taken to the drying house (a brick 

 building), placed on frames, and exposed to the gentle heat of a smoul- 

 dering lire, with arrangements for a proper circulation of air. This 

 drying operation lasts for two months, during which time the nutmegs 

 are turned every second or third day. At the end of this period, the 

 kernels are found to rattle in the shell, an indication that the drying is 

 complete. The shells are then broken with a wooden mallet, the 

 nutmegs picked out and sorted, and finally rubbed over with dry sifted 

 lime. In Banda the smaller and less sightly nutmegs are reserved for 

 the preparation of the expressed oil. 



The old commercial policy of the Dutch originated the singular 

 practice of breaking the shell, and immei-sing the kernel of the 

 artificially dried seed in milk of lime, — sometimes for a period of 

 three months. This was done with a view to render impossible the 

 germination of any nutmegs sent into the market. The folly of such a 

 procedure was demonstrated by Teijsmann, who proved that mere 

 exposure to the sun for a week is sufficient to destroy the vitality of the 

 seed. By immersion in milk of lime many nutmegs are spoiled and the 

 necessity is incurred of a second drj-ing. Lumsdaine has also shown 

 that even the dry liming process is, to say the least, entirely needless. 

 Nutmegs are well preserved in their natural shell, in which state the 

 Chinese have the good sense to prefer them. 



The process of liming nutmegs is however still largely followed; and 

 the prejudice in favour of the spice thus prepared is so strong in certain 

 countries, that nutmegs not limed abroad have sometimes to be limed 

 in London to fit them for exportation. Penang nutmegs are always 

 imported in the natural state, — that is, ion-limed. 



Description — The fruit otMyAsticafragrans is a pendulous, globose 

 drupe, about 2 inches in diameter, and not unlike a small round pear. 

 It is marked by a furrow which passes round it, and by which at 

 maturity its thick fleshy pericarp splits into two pieces, exhibiting in its 

 interior a single seed, enveloped in a fleshy foliaceous mantle or arillus, 

 of fine crimson hue, which is mace. The dark brown, shining, ovate 

 seed is marked with impressions corresponding to the lobes of the 

 arillus; and on one side, which is of paler hue and slightly flattened, 

 a line indicating the raphe may be observed. 



The bony testa does not find its way into European commerce, the 

 so-called nutmeg being merely the kernel or nucleus of the seed. 

 Nutmegs exhibit nearly the form of their outer shell with a con-espondinor 

 diminution in size. The London dealers esteem them in proportion to 

 their size, the largest, which are about one inch long by ^ of an inch 

 broad, and four of which will weigh an ounce, fetching the highest 

 price. If not dressed with lime, they are of a greyish brown, smooth 

 yet coarsely furrowed and veined longitudinally, marked on the flatter 

 side with a shallow groove. A transverse section shows that the inner 

 seed coat (endopleura) penetrates into the albumen in long narrow 

 brown strips, reaching the centre of the seed, thereby imparting the 

 peculiar marbled appearance familiar in a cut nutmeg. 



At the base of the albumen and close to the hilum, is the embryo, 



