488 



NUTMEGS AND MACE. 



soon be augmented. I expect that one acre of plants will be shortly 

 set out. I have also made arrangements at the Bath Garden for 

 bedding all the seeds obtainable there, and these will probably 

 amount to 3000 plants a year, which I purpose offering for sale at 

 a moderate rate per hundred. This tree succeeds best in a rich, deep, 

 friable soil, over a gravelly subsoil forming a natural drainage. 



" The form of the ground ought to be undulating, to assist the 

 running off of all superfluous water, as there is no one thing more 

 injurious to the plant than water lodging around its roots; although, 

 in order to thrive well, it requires an atmosphere of the most humid 

 kind. This tree begins to bear about the seventh year ; and a few 

 years after the average annual yield from each tree may be calculated 

 at from 1000 to 5000 fruit." 



Nutmegs are valued a good deal according to size, the largest being 

 the best ; thus, those of 68 to the lb. will fetch 4s. 8d. ; while very 

 small, 120 to the lb., will be worth but only half that price. 



The shape of the nutmeg varies a good deal, being spherical, oblong 

 and egg-shaped, but the nearer they approach sphericity of figure the 

 more highly are they prized. Those of good quality ought to be nearly 

 round, and the largest and finest weigh on the average about a quarter 

 of an ounce each. They should have an agreeable flavour, but rather 

 bitter, and when pierced exude an oily juice. 



It was at one time thought, for a few years, that the culture would 

 receive a great development in French Guiana, but at last, either from 

 want of proper care, or public infatuation giving way to complete in- 

 difference, the nutmeg plantations were gradually given up. Notwith- 

 standing repeated trials in various colonies in the Indian Ocean, West 

 Indies, and America, the nutmeg does not seem to thrive well, and 

 succeeds only in the localities of the Indian Archipelago. 



In 1864, there was a small export of 5000 lbs. of nutmegs and 900 

 lbs, of mace from Eeunion, and in 1871 the shipments were rather 

 larger, but the production has declined altogether. 



A fraud is often practised in disguising worm-eaten nuts by filling 

 up the holes with mastic. They are also often first deprived of their 

 essential oil by distillation, or steeping in alcohol. Nutmegs yield 

 when distilled with water a volatile or essential oil of nutmegs, in the 

 proportion of about 2 J per cent., and mace an oil of nearly similar 

 properties. A concrete oil, known as nutmeg butter, is also imported 

 from the Moluccas ; it is prepared by heating nutmegs and afterwards 

 submitting them to pressure. The Myristica sebifera, of South America, 

 also yields an oil by expression. 



Wild nutmegs of a longer shape are the produce of Myristica fatua, 

 or tomentosa, and are often imported. Lieut. Cameron states that in 

 his explorations in Central Africa he met with large groves of wild 

 nutmeg trees. A wild nutmeg is also yielded by a Brazilian tree, 

 Cryptocarya moscliata. A false nutmeg, called in Guiana the Ackawa 

 nutmeg, is the fruit of Acrodiclidium Camara. Another kind has occa- 

 sionally been imported on the Continent from Madagascar and Bourbon 

 under the name of clove nutmegs, or ravensara nuts; they are the 

 produce of Agathophyllum aromaticum. 



There are several other kinds of nutmegs derived from different 



