444' M Y R 
on the authority of his friend Klein, who observed that 
its flowers were hermaphrodite, and defcribed it as fol¬ 
lows : “ Calyx in four ovate-lanceolate minute fegments ; 
corolla of four ovate deciduous petals; filaments eight, 
thread-fliaped, the length of the corolla; anthenas linear, 
as long as the filaments ; germens four, forming an arch ; 
ftyles none ; capfules four, fingle-feeded.” 
4. Myriophyllum fcabratum, or rough water-milfoil: 
leaves pinnatifid ; flowers all whorled and axillary; the 
males with four ftarnens ; fruit with eight ribs, dilpofed 
in pairs. This is a native of Carolina and Georgia ; and 
is fufpefted by Michaux to be the Potamogeton pinnatum 
of Walter’s Flora Caroliniana. 
5. Myriophyllum heterophyllum, or various-leaved 
water-milfoil: lower leaves pinnate, capillary ; the upper 
floral ones oval, (harply ferrated; male flowers with fix 
Aamens. From the fame country. Suppofed to be Po¬ 
tamogeton verticillatum of Walter. Michaux, vol. ii. 
p. 190, 1. See Hottonia. 
MYRIOTHE'CA, J'. in botany. See Marattia, vol. 
xiv. 
MYRIS'TICA,yi [jw.t/ps-hao?, Gr. balfamic.] Nutmeg- 
tree ; in botany, a genus of the clafs dioecia, order mo- 
nadelphia, natural order of lauri,./?fj/i(myrifticeae, Brown.) 
Generic Charafters—I. Male. Calyx : periantiiium one- 
leafed, coriaceous, trifid ; (fegments ovate, acute. Co¬ 
rolla : none. Stamina: filament one, columnar, cylin- 
dric, ereft, (hotter than the calyx ; antherae three to ten, 
(twelve or thirteen, Bot. Mag.) linear, connate, growing 
round the upper part of the filament. II. Female, on a 
diftinft tree ; (on the fame trunk, <?. T.—on different 
trees, Lamarck and Juffieu.) Calyx : periantiiium as in 
the male, deciduous. Corolla : none. Piftillum: ger- 
men fuperior ovate ; ftyle very fliort; ftigma bifid ; feg- 
ments ovate, fpreading. Pericarpium : capfule drupace¬ 
ous, flefliy, roundifli, one-celled, at length two-valved, 
burfting earlier on one fide ; aril between the pericarpium 
and the nut, fomewhat flefliy, oily, fubdivided into lon¬ 
gitudinal fegments. Seed: nut roundifli, one-celled, 
valvelefs, with a thin fliell; nucleus roundifli, variegated 
with flexuofe curvatures.— Effeutial CharaEler. Calyx 
trifid ; corolla none. Male. Filaments columnar; an¬ 
thers terminating, uniting. Female. Capfule fuperior, 
drupaceous, two-valved ; nut involved in an aril, called 
the mace. /There are eight fpecies. 
1. Myriftca aromatica, aromatic or true nutmeg-tree: 
calyxes ovate, trifid at the top ; leaves elliptic, pubefcent 
underneath ; fruits even. The nutmeg-tree attains the 
height of thirty feet, producing numerous branches 
which rife together in itories, and covered with bark, 
which of the trunk is a reddilh brown, but that of the 
young branches is of a bright green colour; the inner 
*bark is red : the leaves are nearly elliptical, pointed, un¬ 
dulated, obliquely nerved, on the upper fide of a bright 
green, on the under whitifli, and Hand alternately upon 
footffalks ; the flowers are fimall, and hang upon (lender 
peduncles, proceeding from the axillae of the leaves. 
The nutmeg has been fuppofed to be the comacum of 
Theophraftus, but there feeins little foundation for this 
opinion ; nor can it with more probability be thought to 
be the chryj'obalanus of Galen. Our firff knowledge of it 
cvas evidently derived from the Arabians : by Avicenna 
it was called jiaufiban, or jaufihand, which fignifies “ nut 
of bands.” Rumphius both figured and defcribed this 
tree ; but the figure given by him is fo imperfeft, and the 
defcription fo confufed, that Linnaeus, who gave it the 
c-eneric name Myrijiica, was unable to aflign its proper 
characters. Sonnerat’s account of the mu/cadicr is (till 
more erroneous; and the younger Linnaeus was unfor¬ 
tunately milled by this author, placing the Myriftica in 
the clafs polyandria, and defcribing the corolla as con¬ 
fining of five petals. The fruftification was firff accu¬ 
rately defcribed byThunberg in the Stockholm A6ts for 
1782; and afterwards by Swartz, from fpecimens prelerved 
in fpirits in the collection of fir jofeph Banks, which came 
M Y H 
from Banda and the Ifle of ^France. Gartner has de¬ 
fcribed the fructification thus : Flowers of diftjnft lexes 
on the fame trunk. Calyx trifid ; in the female inferior. 
Corolla none. Stamen one, thick ; antherre feflile at top. 
Style one. Fruit a fuperior berry, elliptic-fpheroidal, 
with a (hallow longitudinal groove on one fide, flefliy, 
very fmooth, one-celled : flefli thick, rather (olid, finally 
drying up into a coriaceous cruft, opening on the fide. 
Seed one, ovate-globular, nucamentaceous, arilled, by 
help of this aril fixed to the bottom of the cell. The aril, 
01 covei, which is commonly called mace, is flefliy-coria- 
ceous, reddilh faffron-coloured, or yellow, one-leafed at 
bottom, multifid at top ; the fegments linear, flexuofe, 
branched, widening upwards, and fometimes gaflied at 
the top. Integument double: the outer, a thin brittle 
fliell, pale chelnut-colopred, fliining, reticulated by the 
impreffions of the aril; the Liner, membranaceous-crufta- 
ceous, fubrufefcent, very clofely cleaving to the kernel, 
and deeply immerled in its fubftance by its internal pro¬ 
cess. Albumen of the fame form with the feed, fleihy- 
farinaceous, as it were chewed, variegated whitifli and 
bay, having a cavity at bottom for the embryo, and fome¬ 
times a void (pace in the middle, fragrant and gratefully 
aromatic. Embryo fmall, ereCt, hollowed out like a difti, 
nnlk-white: cotyledons flefliy-foliaceous, waved, from 
upright fpreading into a two-parted almoft hemifpherical 
cup, joined. Radicle inferior, in form of a very finall tu¬ 
bercle, under the cotyledons. The fruit would be a drupe, 
were it not for the aril. 
The nutmeg-tree is a native of the Eaft Indies, and es¬ 
pecially of the Ifland of Banda, in lat. 4. 30. S. Ion. ia8. 
10. E. It has in a manner been extirpated in all the iflands 
except Banda, w’hich might eafily fupply every nation 
upon earth; it is however certain that there are a few 
trees of this fpice upon the coaft of New Guinea. There 
may perhaps be both cloves and nutmegs upon other 
iflands to the eaffward ; for thole, neither the Dutch nor 
any other Europeans feem to think it worth while to exa¬ 
mine. The wood-pigeon of the Moluccas is uninten¬ 
tionally a great planter of thefe trees; and difleminates 
them in places where a nation, powerful by its commerce, 
thinks it for its intereft that they fliould be rooted out and 
deftroyed. The Dutch, whofe unwearied patience can 
iurmount the greateft obftacles, long appropriated to 
themfelves the crop of nutmegs, as well as that of cloves 
and cinnamon, growing in the iflands of Ternate, Cey¬ 
lon, &c. either by right of conqueft or by paying fubfidies 
to the i(landers, who find thelfe much more profitable than 
the former produce of their trees. It is neverthelefs true, 
that they prevailed upon or compelled the inhabitants of 
the Moluccas to cut down and root out all the clove- 
trees, which they preferve only in the iflands of Am- 
boyna and Ternate, which are in a great meafure fubject 
to them. We know for certain, that the Dutch paid 
18,000 rix-dollars yearly to the king of Ternate, by way 
of tribute or gift, in order to recompenfe him for the Iofs 
of his clove-trees in the other Molucca-iflands ; and that 
they were moreover bound by treaty to take, at three¬ 
pence three-farthings a pound, all the cloves brought by 
the natives of Amboyna to their magazines. They like- 
wile fucceeded in deftroying the cinnamon every-where 
except in the Ifland of Ceylon. The fame was the cafe 
with white pepper, &c. fo that the trade of the whole of 
Europe, and of great part of Afia, in this fpecies of com¬ 
modity, long paflfed through their hands. The Dutch 
had immenfe and very rich magazines of thefe precious 
aromatics, both in India and Europe. They had actually 
by them the produce of lixteen years, and never fupplied 
their neighbours with the 1 aft, but always with the oldeft 
crop : in 1760 they fold what was laid up in 1744. It is 
commonly faid, that, when the Dutch have too great a 
quantity of cloves, nutmegs, &c. in their magazines, 
they throw' them into the fea ; but the fadt is, that they 
get rid of their fuperfluous aromatics by burning them. 
On the 10th of June, 1760, M. Bomare faw at Amfter- 
dam. 
