ON THE CULTURE OF MYRIST1CA MOSCHATA. 
179 
endeavoured to extirpate the nutmeg-tree from all the islands except Banda ; but it 
is said the wood-pig-eon has often been the unintentional means of thwarting- this 
monopolising- spirit by conveying- and dropping- the fruit beyond these limits ; thus 
disseminated, the plant has been always more widely diffused than the clove. This 
tree grows in several islands in the Eastern ocean, in the southern part of both 
peninsulas of India ; and it has been introduced into the Mauritius, and some 
other places. It was for a long- time supposed that, though the plant could be 
transplanted, the peculiar aroma of the nut, which gives to the tree its commercial 
value, was weakened if not entirely lost, when this was removed from its native 
soil, and that, as a spice-producing tree, it, as well as the clove, was confined to the 
same narrow locality to which the clove was said to be restricted. In Sumatra, 
however, it has been successfully cultivated to a larg-e extent. Sir Thomas 
Raffles gives an account of the plantation at Bencoolen in 1820. 'Out of the 
number of one hundred thousand nutmeg- trees,' he writes, * one fourth are in full 
bearing-, and although their culture may be more expensive, their luxuriance and 
produce are considered fully equal to those of the Moluccas.' An attempt has 
been made at Trinidad to naturalise there the clove and the nutmeg-; and very 
recently samples of these spices produced in that island have been transmitted to 
Eng-land, for the inspection and approval of the Society for the Encouragement of 
Arts, &c. The opinions of the best judges have been taken with respect to their 
quality as compared with the Oriental produce, and in consequence of a most 
favourable report, the gold medal of the society has been awarded to the western 
cultivator of these spices, while sanguine hopes are entertained that the clove and 
the nutmeg will one day be perfectly acclimatised in the tropical regions of the 
western hemisphere. The nutmeg tree, as well as the clove, was introduced into 
this country by Sir Joseph Banks as an ornamental hothouse plant. 
" Two spices are obtained from the nutmeg tree — nutmeg, which is the kernel of 
the fruit; and mace, which is. the membraneous tunic or covering immediately 
investing the thin black shell in which the nutmeg is contained ; the whole is enve- 
loped by the external portion of the fruit in the same manner as the stone of a 
peach is by the pulp. This tree is larger than that of the clove. The leaves are 
more handsome in the outline, and are broader in proportion to their length. They 
are of a fine green on the upper surface, and grey beneath. When the trees have 
-attained the age of about nine years, they begin to bear. They are dioecious, 
having male or barren flowers on one tree> and female or fertile on another. The 
flowers of both are small white, bell-shaped, and without any calyx, the embryo 
fruit appearing at the bottom of the female flower, in the form of a little reddish 
knob. The female flowers grow on slender peduncles, two or three together, but 
it is rare that more than one flower in each bunch comes to maturity and produces 
fruit; this resembles in appearance and size a small peach, but it is rather more 
pointed at both ends. The outer coat is about half an inch thick when ripe, at 
which time it bursts at the side and discloses the spices. These are the Mace, 
having the appearance of a leafy net-work of a fine red colour, which seems the 
brighter by being contrasted with the shining black of the shell that it surrounds. 
