12 



MYBISTICACEiE. — THE NUTMEG TRIBE. 



spring, and not feel this emotion ? Who can look upon the modest daisy, with 

 its snowy fringe and golden crest, without some thought swelling in his bosom of 

 joy, and hope, and love ? 



Dr. Mason Good has alluded to this feeling in some elegant lines, which we 

 subjoin, — 



THE DAISY. 



Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep 



Need we to prove a God is here ; 

 The daisy, fresh from winter's sleep, 



Tells of his hand in lines as clear. 



For, who but He who arch'd the skies, 



And pours the day-spring's living flood, 

 Wondrous alike in all He tries, 



Could rear the daisy's purple bud ; 



Mould its green cup, its wiry stem, 



Its fringed border nicely spin ; 

 And cut the gold-embossed gem 



That, set in silver, gleams within ; I 



And fling it, unrestrain'd and free, 



O'er hill, and dale, and desert sod, 

 That man, where'er he walks, may see 



In every step, the stamp of God ? 



MYRISTICACEJ5. — THE NUTMEG TRIBE. 



The Nutmeg, Myristica, with some kindred genera, were formerly united in 

 the same order with the laurels, from which they were separated by Dr. Brown, 

 on account of their dioecious flowers and other points of difference. They are 

 tropical, much-branched trees, with exstipulate, alternate, simple, undivided 

 leaves, devoid of pellucid dots, coriaceous in substance, and, when full grown, 

 generally downy beneath. The flowers are axillary or terminal, racemose or 

 panicled. The fruit is fleshy, the seed nut-like, erect (the nutmeg), and inverted 

 by a many-cleft arillus (the mace). Of the genus Myristica there are several 

 species, but Myristica moschata is the most valuable and the best known. The 

 fruits of all of them are more or less aromatic ; and it is said that some of them 

 are not unfrequently mixed with the genuine nutmeg, although containing much 

 less essential oil, and consequently being far less aromatic, and very inferior 

 as a spice. 



