MYRISTICACEiE. 



109 



perfect figure and confused description of Rumphius (Herb. Amb. ii. 14, t. 4), 

 and he was unable to assign it its proper characters; these were first 

 given in a satisfactory manner by Lamarck (Act. Par. 1788). It is princi- 

 pally Asiatic, though some species also occur in tropical America, and in 

 Africa ; they all are aromatic and stimulant, though one only is in general 

 use. 



M. moschata, Tfiunberg. — Leaves elliptic-oblong, acuminate, smooth, paler beneath, 

 with simple veins. Peduncles few-flowered. 



Thunberg, Act. Holm. 1782; Woodville, iv. t. 238 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2756, 

 2757 ; Stephenson & Churchill, ii. 104 ; M. officinalis, Linn. Suppl. 265 ; 

 Lindley, Flor. Med. 21 ; M. aromatica, Lam. lllus. t. 832. 



Common name. — Nutmeg tree. 



Foreign names. — Muscadier, Fr. Moscato, It. Muskatbaum, Ger. Pela, 

 Malay. 



Description. — A tree from twenty to twenty-five feet high, having a grayish-brown, 

 and somewhat smooth bark, abounding in a yellow juice, and furnished with many whorls 

 of spreading branches. The leaves, which are alternate, on short petioles, are oblong, 

 pointed, smooth, entire, of a dark-green, and somewhat shining above, and paler beneath, 

 with simple parallel veins, and when bruised, are aromatic. The flowers are in axillary 

 racemes, and are supported 



on glabrous peduncles, each Fig. 63. 



pedicel having a deciduous 

 bract at the summit. The 

 male flowers are from three 

 to five on a peduncle. The 

 calyx is urceolate and peta- 

 loid, of a fleshy texture, and 

 somewhat tomentose external- 

 ly, of a pale-yellowish colour, 

 and three-cleft. The stamens 

 are united into a cylindrical 

 column, bearing six to ten 

 connate, linear-oblong, two- 

 celled anthers, with a longitu- 

 dinal dehiscence. The female 

 flowers are frequently solitary, 

 having a short style, borne on 

 a broadly-ovate germ, and ter- 

 minating in a two-lobed per- 

 sistent stigma. The fruit is 

 pyriform, pendent, having a 

 fleshy pericarp opening by 

 two nearly longitudinal valves, 

 and abounding in an astrin- 

 gent juice. The arillus (mace) 

 is fleshy, much laciniated, al- 

 most enveloping the nut, of a 

 brilliant scarlet colour when 

 fresh, but of a yellow-brown 

 and brittle when dry. The 

 nut is oval, with a hard, 

 rugged, dark-brown, shining 

 shell, marked by the mace. 

 It closely envelopes the seed, 

 and its inner coat dips down 



into the substance of its albumen, giving it a marbled {ruminated) appearance. The seed 

 when fresh is quite smooth, but shrivels on drying ; its substance or albumen is fleshy 



M. moschata. 



1. Calyx and stamens. 2. Stamens. 3. Anthers. 4. Female flower. 



5. Nut. 6. Seed divided. 7. Embryo. 



