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from which the pods have been removed are rolled in slaked lime, 

 and packed in cases which have been given a lime wash on the inside; 

 the cases hold 60 kilos nutmegs, and measure 18 X 18 X 18 inches. 

 The mace is packed in cases of 24X24X24 inches , lined with 

 paper. 



This cultivation may be recommended as a by-cultivation, as the 

 nutmeg tree does not require much care, nor much manure. The 

 tree bears fruit from the seventh year, but the crop is not good until 

 the twelfth year, and then improves from year to year. 



Of the enemies of the nutmeg tree a fungus may be mentioned, 

 which attacks the branches and causes their rapid decay; as the origin 

 of this disease is unknown, it cannot be combated. 



Other pests are a beetle which bores holes in the trunk, and a 

 kind of ulcer; trees attacked by the latter, are best felled at once. 



Opopanax Oil. The opopanax resin found in commerce, which 

 serves for the production of the opopanax oil used for purposes of per- 

 fumery, is, as Holmes 1 ) has already pointed out, not identic with genuine 

 opopanax; according to an examination made by A. Baur 2 ) in 1895, 

 it originates from a species of Balsamodendron belonging to the family 

 of Burseraceae, probably Balsamodendron kafal Kunth. The chemical 

 composition of the essential oil which can be obtained from this resin 

 by steam-distillation, is still unknown. Some results of an examination 

 of this oil recently made, may find a place here. 



The oil produced by us had the following constants: d 15 o 0,895; 

 «D — 12 35'; saponification number 14,5; soluble in 1 vol. 90 percent, 

 alcohol; does not form a completely clear solution with 8 vol. 90 per cent, 

 alcohol. When the oil was acetylised an increase in the saponification 

 number was observed, which proves the presence of alcoholic con- 

 stituents. 



The bulk of the oil distilled in vacuo (3 mm.) from 45 to 130 . 

 The viscid brown distillation residue was heated with phthalic acid 

 anhydride to ioo°, in order to collect any sesquiterpene alcohols 

 which might be present. The reaction-product, worked up in the 

 usual manner, yielded a phthalic ester acid which, on saponification 

 with alcoholic potash, split off an alcohol which was extremely diffi- 

 cult to volatilise with water vapour. The alcohol which was present 

 only in small quantity, distilled in vacuo (2 mm.) from 135 to 137 

 as a viscid, colourless oil, possessing a peculiar odour reminding of 

 opopanax. Treatment with phenyl isocyanate yielded a crystallising 

 phenyl urethane, whose melting point, however, did not become con- 

 stant, in spite of repeated recrystallisation. To all appearances the 



1 ) Pharmaceutical Journal III. 21 (1891), 838. 



2 ) Arch, der Pharm. 233 (1895), .209. 



