SEEDS. 
125 
native of Brazil and Uruguay. The commercial prod- 
uct is obtained from cultivated plants. The ripe seeds 
are deprived of the appendage or aril, crushed, made 
into a doughy mass with water, molded into forms and 
dried at a gentle heat. 
Description. — Cylindrical sticks, 15 to 30 cm. long, 
35 to 50 mm. in diameter; externally blackish brown, 
surface marked by depressions, but otherwise smooth ; 
hard and brittle; internally light brown to reddish 
brown, somewhat variegated from the fragments of con- 
tused seeds; odor slight; taste astringent, bitter. 
Constituents. — Caffeine 25 to 5 per cent.; tannin 
(catechu-tannic acid) about 25 per cent. ; ash about 2 
per cent. 
MACIS (Mace). 
The arillode of the seed of Myristica fragrans (Myris- 
ticacese) (see Nutmeg). According to Warburg the 
arillode arises in the region of the hilum before the 
flower opens and fertilization is effected. 
Description. — In coarsely reticulate bands about 1 
mm. thick, the whole having the outline of the nut- 
meg, the basal portion united, but with a small, 
irregular opening; usually in compressed, nearly entire 
pieces, reddish or orange-brown, somewhat translucent, 
brittle when dry ; odor and taste aromatic. 
Constituents.— An aromatic balsam 245 per cent. ; 
volatile oil 8 to 16 per cent.; fixed oil and amylodex- 
trin. 
Bombay mace, or wild mace, is the product of Myris- 
tica Malabarica ; it is distinguished from true mace in 
that the entire mace is narrow-ellipsoidal, the reticula- 
lations are not so coarse, the apex is divided into 
numerous narrow lobes, and it is darker in color. With 
alkalies or sulphuric acid wild mace assumes a darker 
color than the true or cultivated mace does. 
