*which have their Sexes dicecious. SOS 



the shells in a perfect state : possibly such are not rare in British commercial 

 stores of nutmegs. The acquisition of such, the purchasing of a small quan- 

 tity of mace, and the imagining the husk (sarcocarp) of the fruit of the almond 

 to be analogous to that of the nutmeg, would enable any one to conceive 

 pretty clearly, I think, of the general structure of the fruit of the nutmeg. 

 What follows, quoted from the Gard. Mag., iii. 67, 68., shows a case in 

 which a knowledge of the fact that plants have sexes, and of the offices of 

 these sexes, has been of avail to the effecting of important ends. " 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, pur- 

 suing the same line of policy as they did with regard to the clove, and long 

 retaining the monopoly of culture : but, in 1722, M. Poivre introduced the 

 nutmeg to the Isles of France and Bourbon, as well as the clove j from thence 

 it was sent to the West India Islands, and afterwai'ds taken by the British to 

 Bencoolen, in Sumatra, where it is grown in the greatest luxuriance. The 

 Dutch appear to have been totally ignorant of the dioecious nature of the 

 nutmeg tree, and of the consequent sterility of many of the trees ; but the 

 French in the Isle of France, ascertaining that one male plant is sufficient for 

 a hundred females, graft seedling plants with the two sexes in that proportion ; 

 and hence, besides having no superfluous trees, the plantation comes much 

 sooner into bearing." 



MagnoRkceai. " The flowers of Mayna are dioecious." (Lindley, in In- 

 trod. to Nat, Syst. of Botany. ) Brief descriptions of three species of Mayna 

 are in De Candolle's Prod., i. 79. One species is a shrub in Cayenne, the 

 other two, trees in Brazil. 



lutaurinece. 



iaurus nobilis, the sweet-scented bay. The male sex is figured in Flora 

 GrcBca, t. 365., where the author of the attached description has noted that he 

 had not seen the pistil of the other sex. A coloured figure of the fruit is given. 

 Plants of the sweet-scented bay are common in the gardens around London ; 

 and some plants that I have seen this spring (1835) have flowered profusely. 

 Among them, plants of either sex are not rare. Both sexes had commenced 

 flowering on April 27. in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, when 

 I there examined flowers of them. The male plant is the more showy of the two 

 in its flowering, from the pale yellow sepals, yellow anthers, and yellow sterile sta- 

 mens as I believe they are deemed to be. The flowers of the female are, in figure 

 and structure, much like those of the male, but have the sepals greener, and a 

 conspicuous green ovarium in the centre. About four of the yellow bodies, which 

 are deemed, I believe, sterile stamens are in every flower, between the gerraen 

 and the sepals, but scarcely show their colour to the passing eye. Flowers in 

 either sex not obviously fragrant. Where male and female plants stand toge- 

 ther, the latter may, in autumn, excel in beauty in its fruit. Is the form, even, 

 of fruit produced on feminine plants that stand solitary ? 1 think that, in 

 some instances of flowering plants of the male sex, they have shown a freer 

 habit of growth, broader and more flatly expanded leaves, than female plants 

 in flower. If this difference in foliage be characteristic of the sex, and obtain 

 in young plants, it might guide a planter in selecting them of the sex or sexes 

 eligible for his purpose in view. 



" L. Sassafras has the flowers often imperfect as to the male and female 

 organs ; which, before observation was so accurate and scientific as at present, 

 led to the conclusion that one plant bore only males, and the other only her- 

 maphrodites : it is now found that the alleged males are only imperfect hei- 

 raaphrodites." (Quoted in Encyc. of Plants, 1829, from Thomson's Ijondon 

 Dispensary^ 



Of this species, there is a fine tree in the nursery of Mr. Osborn (lately 

 Messrs. Whitley and Co.'s), Fulham; and another in the nursery of Mr. 

 Thomson, Mile End. These will, it is probable, be flowering at the time this 

 appears : would the proprietors be pleased to examine a proportion of the 

 flowers, and communicate the result of their observation ? 



