oOG MYRISTICEiE. 



formed of a short radicle with cup-shaped cotyledons, whose slit and 

 curled edges penetrate into the albumen. The tissue of the seed can be 

 cut with equal facility in any direction. It is extremely oily, and has a 

 delicious aromatic fragrance, with a spicy rather acrid taste. 



Microscopic Structure — The testa consists mainly of long, thin, 

 radially arranged, rigid cells, which are closely interlaced and do not 

 exhibit any distinct cavities. The endopleura which forms the adhering 

 coat of the kernel and penetrates into it, consists of soft- walled, red- 

 brown tissue, with small scattered bundles of vessels. In the outer 

 layers the endopleuia exhibits small collapsed cells; but the tissue 

 which fills the folds that dip into the interior consists of much larger 

 cells. The tissue of the albumen is formed of soft-walled parenchyme, 

 which is densely filled with conspicuous starch-grains, and with fat, 

 partly crystallized. Among the prismatic crystals of fat, large thick 

 rhombic or six-sided tables may often be observed. With these are 

 associated grains of albuminoid matter, partly crystallized. 



Chemical Composition — After starch and albuminoid matter, the 

 principal constituent of nutmeg is the fat, which makes up about a fourth 

 of its weight, and is known in commerce by the incorrect name of Oil 

 of Mace (see p. 507). 



The volatile oil, to which the smell and taste of nutmegs are chiefly 

 due, amounts to between 3 and 8 per cent.,^ and consists, according to 

 Cloez (1864), almost entirely of a hydrocarbon, C^'^IIi'^, boiling at 165° 

 C, which Gladstone (1872), who assigns it the same composition, calls 

 Myristicene. The latter chemist found in the crude oil an oxygenated 

 oil, Myristicol, of very difficult purification and possibly subject to 

 change during the process of rectifying. It has a high boiling point 

 (about 220° C. ?) and the characteristic odour of nutmeg ; unlike carvol 

 with which it is isomeric, it does not form a crystalline compound with 

 hydrosulphuric acid. 



Oil of nutmegs, distilled in London by Messrs. Herring and Co., 

 examined in column 200 mm. long, we found to deviate the ray of 

 polarized light, 1 5°-o to the right ; that of the Long Nutmeg {Myristica 

 fatiia Houtt.), furnished to us by the same firm, deviated 28°-7 to 

 the right. 



From the facts recorded by Gmelin,'^ it would appear that oil of 

 nutmeg sometimes deposits a stearoptene called Myristicin. We are 

 not acquainted with such a deposit ; yet we have been kindly furnished 

 by Messrs. Herrings with a crystalline substance which they obtained 

 during the latter part of the process of distilling both common and long 

 nutmegs. It is a greyish greasy mass, which by repeated crystalliza- 

 tions from spirit of wine, we obtained in the form of brilliant, colour- 

 less scales, fusible at 54° C, and still possessing the odour of nutmeg. 

 The crystals are readily soluble in benzol, bisulphide of carbon or 

 chloroform, sparingly in petroleum ether ; their solution in spirit of 

 wine has a decidedly acid reaction, and is devoid of rotatory power. Bj'- 

 boiling them with alcohol, sp. gr. ()-843, and anhydrous carbonate of 



^ Messrs. Herrings & Co. of London have Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, state 



informed us, that 2874 lb. of nutmegs dis- (1878) that they obtain as much as from 6 



tilled in their laboratory afforded 67 lb. of to 8 per cent, 

 essential oil, i.e. 2-33 per cent. But * Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 389. 



