654 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NUTMEG AND ITS CULTIVATION. 
many times divided and have numerous flowers, there is no chance 
of its becoming 1 entirely female, but where there are only two or 
three flowers on a raceme there is a fair prospect of its doing so. 
The tree has not been introduced into the Straits sufficiently long 
to determine its longevity, but those introduced and planted in the be¬ 
ginning of the present century as yet shew no symptoms of decay. 
The experiment of grafting the trees, which at first view presents so 
many advantages, both in securing the finest quality of nut and the 
certainty of the sex, has still to be tried in this cultivation. Some 
three years ago, I succeeded in grafting several plants by approach, 
these are not sufficiently old for me to decide whether it be desira¬ 
ble or not, for although the plants are looking well and growing, 
they as yet have thrown out their branches in a straggling irregular 
manner* having no leaders, and consequently they cannot throw their 
branches in the regular verticles necessary for the perfect formation 
of the tree, without which they must ever be small and stunted, and 
consequently incapable of yielding any quantity of produce. The 
grafts have succeeded so far as stock and scion becoming one, and 
in time a perpendicular shoot from the wood may appear. If after 
this it should increase in size and strength so as to form a tree of 
full dimensions the advantage gained would be worth any trouble, 
the quality of some nuts being so far above that of others it would 
make a difference beyond present calculation; in short 1000 such 
picked trees at the present prices would yield something equivalent 
to twenty thousand dollars per annum, for ^ 20 per tree would be 
a low estimate for such plants. If this ever does occur it will change 
the aspect of the cultivation altogether, and I see no good reason 
why it should not* except that those possessing frees of the quality 
alluded to, would not very willingly permit others to graft from 
them, so it is only the already successful planter who can try the ex¬ 
periment properly. 
In addition to keeping the trees clean and free from moss and 
parisitical plants, it is highly desirable to use freely the pruning knife, 
cutting away all perpendicular shoots, the decayed ends of branches, 
or whenever the verticles are too dose thinning them too admit air 
and sun to the centre. From over hearing, poverty of soil, or lodge¬ 
ment of water, it frequently happens that the top of the tree with¬ 
ers and the whole of the plant will soon follow, unless it be cut down 
below 1 the affected part; if this be done in time it generally saves 
the tree which after a few months will throw a shoot from the hard 
