642 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NUTMEG AND ITS CULTIVATION. 
ureeolate, slightly tinged with green at the base, and well filled by 
the ovary, whereas the female flowers of weakly trees are entirely 
yellow, imperfectly ureeolate, and approach more to the seminiferous 
flowers of the male. 
The shape of the fruit varies considerably, being spherical, oblong 
and egg shaped, but “ cseteris paribus” the nearer they approach 
sphericity of figure, the more highly are they prized. 
There is also a great variety in the foliage of different trees, from 
eliptic, oblong and ovate, to almost purely lanceolate shaped leaves. 
This difference seems to indicate in some measure the character of 
the produce, trees with large oblong leaves appearing to have the 
largest and most spherical fruit, and therewith small lanceolate leaves 
being in general more prolific bearers, but of inferior quality. 
The object of this paper being practical, I shall confine myself as 
much as possible to a record of an experience extended over a peri¬ 
od of some 20 years; and as the subject of spice planting has now 
become one of deep interest to very many of the Strait’s settlers, I en¬ 
tertain a hope of being able to offer some useful hints to those al¬ 
ready engaged in such operations, and a tolerably safe guide for fu¬ 
ture speculators. But I am by no means disposed to think that I can 
so exhaust the subject as leave nothing for future writers, being fully 
persuaded in my own mind that the cultivation of the nutmeg can 
still be greatly improved, and that in fact very little science has as 
yet been expended upon it. 
The Nutmeg Planter, to use Colonel Low’s expressive words, 
“ must have the bump of perseverance myristicafically developed, 
and be impervious to compunctious feelings or opening his purse”; 
the combination also of an enthusiastic temperament with untiring 
patience is desirable. If he be in baste to get rich, let him attend to 
some other pursuit; but he has this consolation, that nutmeg planting 
properly conducted, although slow, is sure, and when brought to a 
certain point, safe and enduring; and he has the further consolation 
of knowing that nature has bestowed upon him a monopoly, for the 
nutmeg tree appears to be confined within comparatively narrow li¬ 
mits. Whilst its congener, the clove, has been spread over Asia, 
Africa, and the West Indies, the nutmeg refuses to flourish out of the 
Malayan Archipelago except as an exotic, all attempts hitherto made 
to introduce it largely into other tropical countries having decidedly 
failed. 
The Island of Ternate, which is in about the same latitude as Sin- 
