142 
SPICES 
CHA.P. 
and kept in a high state of cultivation for many 
years. These cultivations and those near Mount Lavinia 
practically failed. The nuts were few and inferior in 
quality, notvvithstanding every necessary care was 
bestowed on their cultivation. In 1883 as much as 
230 acres of nutmegs were returned in the Ceylon 
Directory as cultivated. 
The tree is recorded, however, as bearing freely in 
E,atnapura, and seems, by Dr. Trimen’s Eeport, to have 
done well at Peradeniya. One writer in the Ceylon 
Observer mentions the failure of trees at Gala from their 
being planted “ kabook,” which is, I believe, a Ceylon 
term for laterite soil, in which they do very well in the 
Malay Peninsula. There seems, however, to have been 
at this time an idea in Ceylon that manuring was fatal 
to the tree, and possibly want of manure Pad much to 
do with this failure. 
The cultivation seems by now to have quite died 
out. Indeed, it was always more of an experimental 
than a practical cultivation in Ceylon. 
In Africa the nutmeg was introduced into Zanzibar 
by Sultan Sayyed, but though it grows well it is not 
extensively cultivated. It bears freely, I learn from 
Mr. Lyne. It has been also introduced from time to 
time into West Africa, but no cultivation of any 
importance has been made there. In Mauritius and in 
Bourbon it has received more attention, and in 1864 
2500 kilograms of nutmegs and 4500 kilograms of mace 
were exported from Bourbon. In 1865 only 1365 kilo- 
grams of mace and nutmegs were obtained, and still less 
in 1871, after which the cultivation was abandoned.^ 
In South America . — Poivre sent it to Cayenne in 
1772, and it was cultivated to a small extent from 
1832 to 1836, but the greatest output was only 200 
kilograms in 1835, after which the cultivation dwindled 
away. It was a long time ago introduced into Brazil, 
British and Dutch Guiana, but no extensive cultivation 
has ever taken place in any of these places. 
^ Simmons, Tropical Agriculture. 
