17 



vivifying lig-Iit and heat. The total immhM* of -pice 

 plants on the Ifferid was, at the same period, estimated 

 at 33,000 only, but scarcely one of these had yef come 

 into hearing. That such larjre importations should so 

 speedily have dwindled down to Hie comparative! y 

 small number, wwsoF*»g*.a< 6^ to/he shyness of the 

 cultivators, and the care It -ss with which the newly 

 arrived plants were treated, and subsequently, to tfte 

 prevailing ignorance as to the proper method of culti- 

 vating these exotics; for the community were uuf >rtu- 

 nateiy taught, and credulously believed, even wtdk tlie 

 true sources of information lay open to it, that spice 

 trees grew almost without culture. In spile, uev orthe- 

 J< s>, of the <ffstrust which partial failure created, and 

 the ahsorbmenl of capital in the vortex of commerce, 

 the nutmeg and clove trees held fast possession of 

 the soil, and ic is lo lv hoped the prescriptive ritfht 

 they have established will he now supported by due 

 attention to them. H cammi In* positively atKruied 

 that either has so naturalized itself as to spread spon- 

 taneously; yet, it is known that most of the plantation^ 

 now in a productive state, have been created by plants 

 raised from nuts yielded by trees of the original impor- 

 tations, and a number of iiutmeg trees which had 

 becnfialanted on th« face of a hill and abandoned, were, 

 utter a lapse of about four years, rescued from thiek 

 jungle and found to be in a lively condition and in 

 bearing. The wild nutmeg tresis indigenous to Pi- 

 nang 1 , being an inhabitant of the hills. It is a tall forest 

 tree and bears a more oval-shaped fruit titan the true 

 nutmeg tree, floth the nut and mace are less pungent 

 and more a string ent than the true spice, yet the Chu- 

 liafifl hav e b ei n in the habit of gathering them and 

 selling them, in the native bazars. Strange as it may 

 scem.'thistrce was. ab ml thirl \ -tour \ » J ars iv^n publicly 

 rep 01 -ted to the huiiie authorities as the true Utftdfeg 



