262 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XVI. 



in disgust, and ordered them to be sold. Taken up by 

 enterprising planters, the Penang spice-plantations for a 

 time yielded ample returns, owing rather to the care which 

 had been spent upon them by the previous possessors. 

 Singapore became a British settlement in 1824 ; and in the 

 infancy of this settlement it was not attempted to vie with 

 Penang in cultivating these expensive plantations ; but 

 about 1837 an impetus was given to nutmeg-cultivation in 

 Singapore with results so promising that everything gave 

 way to the mania for planting this species. Large clearances 

 in the jungle were purchased from Government at considerable 

 distances from town, and expensive bungalows were erected 

 upon such estates, and surrounded by plantations of this 

 valued tree ; and nearer the settlement, private gardens were 

 turned into nutmeg-nurseries, and the houses were closely 

 surrounded with nutmeg-groves. 



The nutmeg-tree is, when in health, a handsome bushy 

 tree, between 20 and 30 feet high, with numerous dark- 

 green shining leaves. It is evergreen, and ever-flowering, 

 so that fruit and flowers constantly coexist upon the tree — 

 the flowers small, yellowish, and urceolate, and the fruit 

 needing no description here. Being diclinous, a great in- 

 convenience arises from the fact that a great many male 

 trees are planted and cultivated, being undistinguishable 

 from the female trees until the flowers appear. Such trees 

 are of course useless, since they do not bear — one male tree 

 to about twenty females being sufficient for the purposes of 

 impregnation, and to ensure the swelling of the ovule. 



The trees were not allowed to be left to the natural 

 powers of the climate and soil, but were richly manured 

 and forced into yielding heavy crops. To the manner of 

 doing this, and to the extent to which they were forced into 



