146 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
is usually taken at night into the room used for smoking 
the nutmegs, but in places where the nutmegs are not 
smoked a drying -room, light and airy, should be 
provided. Smoking the mace is liable to make it 
spotted and spoil its colour, so that if owing to the 
dampness of the weather it should be necessary to use 
artificial heat, it should be dried over a smokeless fire 
of charcoal, or at least care must be taken not to allow 
the smoke to touch it. 
Great care must be taken to prevent its getting 
mouldy, to which it is very liable, and which very 
much depreciates the value of the spice. Mace, at first 
of a brilliant red colour, gradually becomes orange, and 
finally yellow, after some months’ drying. 
A perfect sample of mace should consist of entire 
double blades, not broken, fiattened and of large size, 
horny in texture and not too brittle, and of a good, 
clear, and bright colour. 
VARIETIES OF MACE 
Pereira {Materia Medica, 1850) gives three varieties 
of mace as distinguished by the London dealers in that 
day, and these three varieties seem to be known in 
commerce to the present time. 
1. Penang Mace . — This is the most highly valued. 
It is more flaky and well spread than the others, and of 
good size and colour. 
2. Dutch or Batavia Mace . — A fleshy form which 
fetches a lower price. Possibly he here refers to what 
is known as Macassar mace, the product of another 
tree, Myristica argentea, which occurs in more or less 
broken pieces of a brownish colour, and dull and opaque, 
with the surface often powdery white. The segments 
have very broad, rounded axils, and are fewer in number 
and widely separated. They are about ^ in. wide at 
the upper ends. The flavour resembles that of the 
true nutmeg, has more of a sassafras tendency and 
is distinctly acrid. 
