chap, xix.] NUTMEGS. 453 



occur which under a forced and unnatural system of cul- 

 tivation have ruined the nutmeg planters of Singapore 

 and Penang. 



Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg- 

 trees. They are handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, 

 growing to the height of twenty or thirty feet, and hearing- 

 small yellowish flowers. The fruit is the size and colour 

 of a peach, but rather oval. It is of a tough fleshy con- 

 sistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark- 

 brown nut within, covered with the crimson mace, and is 

 then a most beautiful object. Within the thin hard shell 

 of the nut is the seed, which is the nutmeg of commerce. 

 The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda, which 

 digest the mace but cast up the nut with its seed un- 

 injured. 



The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly 

 of the Dutch Government ; but since leaving the country 

 I believe that this monopoly has been partially or wholly 

 discontinued, a proceeding which appears exceedingly in- 

 judicious and quite unnecessary. There are cases in 

 which monopolies are perfectly justifiable, and I believe 

 this to be one of them. A small country like Holland, 

 cannot afford to keep distant and expensive colonies at a 

 loss ; and having possession of a very small island where 

 a valuable product, not a necessary of life, can he obtained 

 at little cost, it is almost the duty of the state to mono- 



