Catalogue of Botanical Works. 



67 



vegetable to mankind at large, as well as a name to a new and very beau- 

 tiful plant." 



Sida pulchella; 16 and 13, and Malvaceae. New Holland, and nearly 

 hardy. — Jcacia penninervis, Feather-nerved Acacia. 



No. VIII. for August, contains 

 2755 to 2761. — Gungora (A. C. y Gongora, Bishop of Cordova, patron 

 of Mutis) specidsa; 20 and 1, and Orchideas. Oneof the most curious of Bra- 

 zilian epiphytes. From the garden of R. Harrison, Esq., at Aighburgh, near 

 Liverpool. Flowers yellow, large, fragrant, and the cup at the base of the 

 labellum filled with honey, and sometimes emptied and refilled in the course 

 of the day. May; easiest culture. — Myristica officinalis, Officinal, aromatic, or 

 true Nutmeg Tree {fig. 28.) ; Dice'cia Monadelphia and Myristicea?. A tree 



of the Molucca or Spice Islands, from twenty to twenty-five feet high, 

 with a greyish brown bark, whorls of spreading branches, elliptical smooth 

 leaves six inches long, and flowers not unlike those of the lily of the 

 valley. The fruit is a drupe, of the size and somewhat of the shape of 

 a small pear (a). " The flesh, which abounds in an astringent juice, is of 

 a yellowish colour (b), almost white within, and four or five lines in thick- 

 ness : this opens into two, nearly equal, longitudinal valves (c d), and pre- 

 sents to view the nut (e), surrounded by its arillus or mace (/), which soon 

 drops out, and the husk (b) withers." The colour of the nut when fresh is 

 a brilliant scarlet ; when dry it becomes horny, brittle, and of a yellow 

 brown ; the shell (g) is very hard, and not above half a line thick ; it en- 

 velopes the kernel, or nutmeg of the shops (h), which is of an oval or ellip- 

 tical form, pale brown, and afterwards furrowed on its surface. Its outside 

 is very thin, its inner substance or albumen (i) firm, whitish, with red veins, 

 abounding in oil. The tree bears both blossoms and fruit at all seasons of 

 the year, and assists, with other aromatic trees and shrubs, to form that 

 atmosphere of fragrance in the upper regions of the air, in which the na- 

 tives believe the birds of paradise perpetually float. " Long before the East 

 India Islands were discovered by the Portuguese, the nutmeg, as well as the 

 clove, seems to have been known in Europe through the medium of 

 Persia and Arabia, and, since the year 1.510, when the first Portuguese 

 navigators visited those islands, they have probably been known as an 

 article of commerce; yet, down to the time of Linnasus, nothing was 

 known of the plant that produced this precious fruit, nor till M. Cere, 

 director of the royal gardens in the Isle of France, communicated speci- 

 mens and observations to the Chevalier de Lamarck." The Dutch, having 

 possession of the Spice Islands in 1619, encouraged to the utmost of their 

 power the cultivation of the nutmeg in a few of them, pursuing the same 



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