245 M Y R 
1 hese animals seldom appear far from 
their retreats, or in any exposed situation ; 
tor which reason they seem less common in 
this country than they really are. They 
make their nest of grass, moss, and dead 
leaves. . According to the count de Button, 
it consists of interwoven herbs, and is six 
inches in diameter, open only above, and is 
situa'.ed between the branches of hazel and 
brushwood, the number of young is gene- 
rally three or four. 
Mh RICA, Gale, or Sweet-ve 'llozv, a genus 
of the tetrandria order, in the dioecia class of 
plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 5th order, amentaceax The scale 
the male catkin is in the form of a cres- 
cent, without any corolla. 1 iie scale 
ot tiie female catkin the same : there is no 
corolla ; but two styles, and a monospennous 
berry. 
, 1. i he gale, Dutch myrtle, or sweet-wil- 
i°w, grows naturally upon bogs in many 
places both of Scotland and England. It 
rises about four feet high. The fe- 
male flowers or catkins are produced from 
the sides of the branches, growing upon se- 
parate plants from the male, which are 
succeeded by clusters of small berries, each 
.having a small seed. It flowers in July, and 
ripens in autumn. When transplanted into 
shrubberies, the moistest parts must be as- 
signed to it. 
1 he leaves, flowers, and seeds of this plant, 
bave a ^strong fragrant smell, anti a bitter 
baste. They are said to be used among the 
common people for destroying moths and 
cutaneous insects, being accounted an ene- 
my to insects of every kind ; internally, in 
infusions, as a stomachic and vermifuge; 
and as a substitute to hops for preserving 
mult liquors, which they render more ine- 
briating, and of consequence less salubrious ; 
it is said that this quality is destroyed by 
boiling.''’ ' J 
‘2. 1 he cerifera, wax-bearing myrica, or 
candleberry myrtle, is a native of North 
America. It is. a small tree, about 10 or 12 
feet high, with crooked stems branching forth 
near the ground irregularly. The leaves 
grow irregularly on them all round; some- 
times by pairs, sometimes alternately, but 
generally at unequal distances. The brandies 
<>! the old plants shed their leaves in the 
autumn ; but the young plants raised from 
seeds retain them the greatest part of the 
winter, so as during that season to have, the 
appearance of an evergreen. But this beauty 
will not be lasting, for they shed their leaves 
proportionally earlier as the plants get older. 
There are both male and female trees of this 
sort : the flowers are small, of a whitish co- 
lour, and make no figure ; neither does the 
fruit that succeeds the female (which is a 
small, dry, blue berry), though produced in 
clusters, make any shew : so that it is from 
the leaves this tree receives its beauty and 
value ; for these being bruised, as well as the 
bark of the young shoots, emit the most re- 
freshing and delightful fragrance, that is ex- 
ceeded by no myrtle, or any other aromatic 
shrub. See Plate Nat. Hist! fig. 239. 
There is a variety of this species of lower 
growth, with shorter but broader leaves, and 
of equal fragrance. This grows commonly 
in Carolina ; where the inhabitants collect 
from its berries a wax of which they make 
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candles, and which occasions ifs being called 
the candleberry tree, it delights in a moist- 
ish soil. The wax is procured in the follow- 
ing manner: In November and December, 
when the berries are ripe, a man with his fa- 
mily will remove from home to some island 
or sand-bank near the sea, where these trees 
most abound, taking with them kettles to 
boil the berries in. ' He builds a hut with 
palmetto-leaves for the shelter of himself and 
family during his residence there, which is 
commonly four or five weeks. The man 
cuts down the trees, while the children strip 
olf the berries into a porridge-pot; and hav- 
ing put water to them, they boil them till the 
oil floats, which is then skimmed off into 
another vessel. This is repeated till no 
more oil appears. When cold, this hardens 
to the consistence of wax, and is of a dirty- 
green colour, 'they tiien boil it again, and 
clarify it in brass kettles; which gives it a 
transparent greenness. These candles burn 
a long time, and yield a grateful smell. They 
usually add a fourth part of tallow, which 
makes them burn clearer. There are seven 
other species. 
MA RIO PH A LLl M, a genus of the 
polyandria order, in the moncecia class of 
plants ; and in the natural method ranking- 
under the 15th order, immdatax The male 
calyx is tetraphyllous ; there is no corolla ; 
the stamina are eight in number. The fe- 
male calyx is tetraphyllous ; the pistils four; 
there is no stile; and four naked seeds. 
There are two species, aquatics of Europe. 
M\ RIST1CA, the nutmeg-tree ; in botany, 
a genus of plants belonging to the class 
dioecia, and order syngenesia, and of the 
natural order lauri. The male calyx is mo- 
nophyllous, strong, and parted into three la- 
cinia; of an oval shape, and ending in a paint : 
it has no corolla. In the middle of the re- 
ceptacle rises a column of the height of the 
calyx ; to the upper part of which the an- 
therac are attached. They vary in number 
from three to twelve or thirteen. The fe- 
male calyx and corolla, as in the male, on a 
distinct tree. The germen of an oval shape ; 
the style short, with a bifid stigma, the 
lacinke of which are oval and spreading. 
The fruit is of that sort called drupa. It is 
fleshy, roundish, sometimes unilocular, some- 
times bivalved, and when ripe bursts at the 
side. The seed is enveloped with a fleshy 
and fatty membraneous substance, which di- 
vides into filaments: this, in one of the spe- 
cies is the mace of the shops. The seed or 
nutmeg is round or oval-shaped, unilocular, 
and contains a small kernel, variegated on 
the surface by the fibres running in the form 
of a screw. 
I here are five species of this genus accord- 
ing to some authors ; but several of these 
being only varieties, may be reduced to 
three, viz. 1 . Myristica fatua, or wild nut- 
meg ; this grows in 'Tobago, and rises to the 
height of an apple-tree ; has oblong, lanceo- 
lated, downy leaves, and hairy fruit ; the 
nutmeg of which is aromatic, but when given 
inwardly is narcotic, and occasions drunken- 
ness, delirium, and madness for a time. 2. 
The myristica sebifera, a tree frequent in 
Guiana, rising to 40 or even to 60 feet high ; 
on wounding the trunk of which, a thick, 
acrid, red juice runs out. Aublet says no- 
thing of the nutmegs being aromatic ; lie 
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only observes, that a yellow fat is obtained 
from them, which serves many economical 
and medical purposes, and that the natives 
make candles of it. 3. 'The mysteria aro- 
■matica, or nutmeg, attains the height of 30 
feet, producing numerous branches, which 
rise together in stories, and covered with 
bark, which of the trunk is a reddish brown, 
but that of the young branches is of a bright 
green colour; the leaves are nearly ellipti- 
cal, pointed, undulated, obliquely nerved, 
on the upper side of a bright green, on the 
nuclei whitish, and stand alternately upon 
footstalks ; the flowers are small, and bane 
upon slender peduncles, proceeding from 
the axillae of the leaves: they ate both male 
and female upon separate trees. 
The nutmeg has been supposed to be the 
comacum of Theophrastus, but there seems 
little foundation for this opinion ; nor can it 
with more probability be thought to be the 
chrysobalanos of Galen. Our first know- 
ledge of it was evidently derived from the 
Arabians ; by Avicenna it was called jiausiban 
or jausiband, which signifies nut of Banda! 
r J here are two kinds of nutmegs, the one 
male and the other female. The female is 
that in common use ; the male is longer and 
more cylindric, but it has less of the fine aro- 
matic flavour than the other. This is very 
subject to be worm-eaten, and by the Dutch 
it is strictly prohibited from being packed 
with the others, because it will give occasion 
to their being worm-eaten too, by the insects 
getting from one species to the 'other. An 
almost exclusive and very lucrative trade in 
nutmegs from the island'of Ceylon was car- 
ried on by the Dutch, but it is now transfer- 
led to tlie English, who have become masters 
of the colony. 
The. seeds or kernels called nutmegs are 
well known, as they have been long’ used 
both for culinary and medical purposes. Dis- 
tilled with water, they yield a large quantity 
of essential oil, resembling in flavour the 
spice itself; after the distillation, an insipid 
sebaceous matter is found swimming on the 
water ; the decoction inspissated, gives an 
cxtiact of an unctuous, very lightly bitterish 
taste, and with little or no astringencv. Rec- 
tified spirit extracts the whole virtue of nut- 
megs by infusion, but elevates very little of 
it in distillation ; hence the spirituous ex- 
tiact possesses the flavour of the spice in an 
eminent degree. 
Nutmegs, when heated, yield to the press 
a considerable quantity of limpid yellow oil, 
which on cooling concretes into a' sebaceous 
consistence. In the shops we meet with 
three sorts of unctuous substances, called oil 
of mace, though really expressed from the 
nutmeg. I he best is brought from the East 
Indies in stone jars ; this is of a thick con- 
sistence, of the colour of mace, and has an 
agreeable fragrant smell ; the second sort, 
which is paler-coloured, and much inferior 
in quality, comes from Holland in solid mass- 
*'■’) genet ally flat, and of a square figure: 
the third, which is tiie worst of all, and 
usually called common oil of mace, is an ar- 
tificial composition of sevum, palm oil, and 
the like, flavoured with a little genuine oil 
of nutmeg. 
Method of gathering and preparing nut- 
megs. — When the fruit is ripe, the natives 
ascend the trees, and gather it by pulling 
