<£f)C Crea^ury of 2S0tany, 



[myem 



and aromatic fragrance are the properties 

 of the order. [J. H. B.] 



MTRISTICA. A genus of plants remark- 

 able as furnishing the Nutmeg and Mace 

 of commerce. It belongs to the Myristi- 

 cacea?, and consists of lofty trees or shrubs, 

 natives of tropical countries, and especially 

 of India. They are most of them aromatic, 

 and abound in a reddish acrid juice. The 

 leaves are entire ; the flowers dioecious, 

 very small, clustered in the axils of the 

 leaves, or sometimes in panicles. The pe- 

 rianth consists of three or four segments, 

 more or less united together, and enclos- 

 ing a variable number of stamens, which 

 areunited into one parcel below. The ovary 

 is free, with a single inverted ovule. The 

 fruit is fleshy, but divides when ripe into 

 two pieces, disclosing the seed covered by 

 the arillode or mace. 



3f. moschata, or If. officinalis, is largely 

 cultivated in the Molucca Islands, Java, 

 Sumatra, Bengal, &c. It is a tree of twenty 

 to twenty-five feet in height.with oblong 

 aromatic leaves, and fruit very much like 

 a peach, having a longitudinal groove on 

 one side, and bursting into two pieces,when 

 the enclosed seed, covered by the false aril 

 or aril lode, which constitutes the substance 

 known as Mace, is exposed. The seed itself 

 has a thick hard outer shell, which may be 

 removed when dry, and which encloses the 

 nucleus of the seed, the Nutmeg of the 

 shops. The nutmeg consists of the albu- 

 men or perisperm, with the embryo at one 

 end, and is covered by a thin membrane, 

 which adheres closely to its surface, and 

 projects into the substance of the albumen, 

 thereby giving it the mottled appearance 

 for which it is so remarkable. 



In the Banda isles, the principal seat of 

 the cultivation of the Nutmeg, the fruits 

 are gathered at three seasons, July, Novem- 

 ber, and March or April. The mace, which 

 at first is of a beautiful crimson colour, is 

 dried in the sun, or by artificial heat if the 

 weather be unfavourable, when it speedily 

 assumes a golden-yellow colour. The nut- 

 megs are dried, and then the outer shell 

 of the seed is removed. Occasionally they 

 are imported in the shell, a procedure which 

 prevents the ravages of the nutmeg insect, 

 but on the other hand adds considerably to 

 the weight and to the waste. The nuts 

 are sometimes washed over with lime to 

 protect them from the attacks of the in- 

 sect just mentioned. Several kinds of nut- 

 megs are met with in commerce, perhaps 

 the produce of as many different species. 

 The most esteemed are those of Penang, 

 which are about an inch in length, of 

 the shape of a damson, pale-brown and 

 furrowed on the exterior, internally grey 

 with red veins, the odour and taste aroma- 

 tic. Penang mace is also considered better 

 than that from Java or Singapore, and is 

 of a pale cinnamon colour when dry. Maces 

 and nutmegs are in large use as spices, 

 and medicinally as stimulants and carmina- 

 tives ; in large doses they have narcotic 

 properties. 



At one time the culture of nutmegs was 



almost entirely in the hands of the Dutch, 

 who took every means to monopolise the 

 growth of the plants, in which they were 

 in a measure defeated by a kind of pigeon, 

 which, extracting the nutmeg from its 

 pulpy covering, digests the mace, and voids 

 the nutmeg uninjured. It is related that 

 the Dutch used to burn nutmegs when the 

 crops were too abundant, in order to keep 

 up high prices. Old ladies in the country, to 

 this day, keep a nutmeg in their pocket, as 

 was customary in their younger days, when 

 the effects of the war with France, and of 

 the Dutch monopoly, rendered all spices 

 very expensive. M.fatua, Otoba, tomentosa, 

 spuria, acuminata, and other species, yield 

 nutmegs in Brazil, in the Philippine islands, 

 and in Madagascar. The produce of some 

 of these, especially of M. fatua, finds its 

 way into the English market under the 

 name of Long or Wild Nutmegs ; they are 

 longer and more pointed and of inferior 

 quality to the true Penang nutmeg. Nut- 

 megs contain both a fixed and a volatile 

 oil ; the former is extracted by pressure, 

 and forms what is called butter pf mace; 

 the latter is obtained by distillation. Nut- 

 megs are occasionally sent into the market 



Myristica moschata. 

 after the oil has been distilled from them, 

 and in a comparatively valueless condition. 

 The French are said to have various inge- 

 nious methods of dressing up inferior nut- 

 megs to resemble good ones, and even to 

 fabricate artificial nutmegs of bran, clay, 

 and the powder of nutmegs. [M. T. M.] 



MYRMECODIA. A genus of cinchona- 

 ceous shrubs, natives of the Molucca Is- 

 lands. They are epiphytes with a tuberous 

 stock, whence issue a few short fleshy 

 brancnes. The leaves are stalked ; the sti- 

 pules peltate, ciliated ; the flowers axillary 

 fessile, with an undivided calyx, and a 

 funnel-shaped corolla ; the latter has a four- 

 lobed limb, and hairy throat, into which 

 the four very short stamens are inserted. 

 The fruit is succulent, surmounted by the 

 calyx, four-celled, four-seeded. [M. T. M.] 



