Ill 
NUTMEGS AND MACE 
103 
commenced the introduction of spice plants, and nutmegs 
and cloves were extensively planted, but the disease of 
1866 practically exterminated the cultivation on the 
island, and it was never renewed to any large extent. 
Indeed, Singapore seems less well suited for the nutmeg 
than Penang. In Penang, however, the cultivation 
revived, and is still a very important one, though the 
plantations have passed from European hands to those 
of Chinese and Malays. 
In the Dutch Islands the cultivation still continues, 
and there is a considerable export thence. 
The plant has been exported to all other tropical 
countries but, except in the West Indies, has hardly 
entered the stage of important cultivation. In Zanzibar, 
Mr. Lyne informs me it grows on selected soils, but is 
not extensively cultivated though it bears freely. 
It might be grown with success in most of the 
tropical islands, for it seems to require sea-air, but the 
price of nutmegs and mace, though still remunerative, 
is not at present sufficiently high to induce the ordinary 
planter to take it up extensively. 
SOIL AND ALTITUDE 
Soils . — The soils in which nutmegs have been culti- 
vated with success are remarkably varied. 
The Spice Islands of the Banda group, long famous 
for their nutmegs, are volcanic islands. Dr. Oxley 
describes them thus : — 
Neira is little else than volcanic ashes mixed with quantities 
of pumice-stone, which, broken into minute portions, form in 
many places a sort of brownish gravel on the surface. The 
colour of the soil is nearly black. It is a sandy, friable loam, 
enriched by the constant falling of a very dense foliage with a 
large proportion of vegetable matter. The soil of Great Banda 
is, generally speaking, of a brown colour, and has more tenacity 
than that of Neira. There is no granite rock to be found on 
either of the islands, and but very little iron-stone. The hills 
are composed of basalt, conglomerate, trachyte, and obsidian. 
In great contrast to this is the soil of Penang and 
