THE NUTMEG. 



95 



Their colour externally is a dark brown^ internally cinnamon 

 brown. They are not often imported^ and cannot easily be 

 met with^ owing to the demand which always exists for them. 



The Nutmeg. Mynstioa moschata, (Nat. Ord. Myris- 

 tieacecB.) (Plate III. fig. 11.) 



This well-known spice is of comparatively modern intro- 

 duction ; the first mention of it is by Avicenna^ a celebrated 

 Arabian physician^ about the middle of the eleventh century : 

 both Nutmegs and Mace were used by him medicinally^ and 

 great virtues attributed to them. 



The nutmeg-tree reaches twenty to twenty-five feet in 

 height ; it is finely formed, and strongly resembles our pear- 

 tree in its general appearance, and also in its fruity which is 

 *• not unlike the round Burgundy pear. Belonging to the Lin- 

 nsean Class Dioecia, its pistils and stamens are on different 

 plants ; the stamen-flowers are in small bunches of three or 

 five, on short pedicels, the peduncle arising from the axils of 

 the leaves ; the pistil-flowers are sometimes solitary, that is, 

 singly placed on a footstalk or peduncle. The fruit consists 

 of the fleshy pericarp, which, when ripe, splits or dehisces 

 into two halves, showing inside the nut or nutmeg enclosed 

 in an arillus or stringy covering, which is the Mace, The 

 external portion of the fruit is not used, except occasionally 



