MYRISTICA MOSCHATA. 
MYBISTICA HOSCHATA. 
Nat. Order ,— Myristicaceje. 
Generic Character. — Myristica, Linnams. — Pert gone 
simple, coloured, ureeolate, or cylindrically-tubular, three- 
toothed, valvate in aestivation. Masc : anthers 6-15, linear, 
actuate longitudinally to the staminal column. Fern : ovary 
single, one-celled; ovule solitary, or sometimes a pair, erect 
from the base, anatropoUs ; stigma two-iobed. Berry capsular, 
tiro- or sometimes four-valved, one-seeded. Seed nut-like, 
erect, enclosed in a fleshy, much divided arillus. Embryo small, 
at the base of fleshy ruminated albumen; cotyledons divergent, 
folded; radicle short, inferior.—Trees or shrubs of tropical 
Fig. a, male flower ; 
Asia and America; leaves alternate, shortly stalked, quite 
entire ; flowers axillary or supra-axillary, very rarely termi¬ 
nal; females mostly solitary, more rarely like the males ar¬ 
ranged in loose few-flowered bunehes or dense capitules, some¬ 
times in racemes, corymbs, or panicles; pedicels with a half¬ 
cup-shaped bract near the summit; fruits aromatic or insipid, 
—(Endlicher Gen.PIA7G6 .) 
Myristica moschata, Tlmnberg. — The Nutmeg-tree. — 
Leaves elliptic-oblong, acuminate, smooth, paler beneath, with 
simple veins; peduncles few-flowered. 
b, vertical section of do,; c, female flower ; d, vertical section of do.—The 
sections somewhat magnified. 
B ESCEIPTION.—A tree from twenty to twenty-five feet high, in its native climate, 
abounding in yellowish juice. Branches whorled and numerous, with alternate leaves on 
short stalks, oblong-pointed, smooth, entire, dark green, and somewhat shining above and pale 
beneath; veins simple and parallel; leaves aromatic when bruised. Blowers in axillary racemes, 
on glabrous peduncles with a deciduous bract near the summit. Hale flowers from three to five 
on a peduncle: calyx ureeolate and petaloid, fleshy and somewhat tomentose outside, pale 
vellowish and three-cleft ; the stamens united into a cylindrical column bearing; 6-10 connate, 
linear-oblong, two-celled anthers, bursting longitudinally. The female flowers frequently soli¬ 
tary, with a short style borne on a broadly ovate germen, and terminating in a two-lobed 
persistent stigma. Bruit pear-shaped, pendent, having a fleshy pericarp, opening by two nearly 
longitudinal valves, and abounding in astringent juice; the aril {mace) fleshy, much laciniated 
almost enveloping the nut, of a brilliant scarlet colour when fresh, yellowish-brown and brittle 
when dry; the nut oval, with a hard, rugged dark-brown, shining shell, marked by the mace, 
closely enveloping the seed and its inner coat dipping down into the substance of the albumen, 
giving it a marbled {ruminated) appearance. The seed when fresh is quite smooth, but shrivels 
in drying; its substance or albumen is fleshy and whitish, but traversed by veins of a dark 
brown colour, abounding in oil. The large fleshy embryo with a hemispheral radicle lies near 
its base. 
History, &c. —The Nutmeg has been cultivated in English gardens since 1795, but never, 
we believe, with the success which has been realized at Syon, the noble establishment of His 
Grace the Duke of Northumberland, whence our drawing was obtained. 'We learn from Hr. 
Ivison, the gardener at Syon, that the tree which has produced the fruit from which our 
drawing was made, is one of half a dozen which were sent to Svon bv Hr. Hallich, from the 
Calcutta Botanic Garden, about twelve years since ; they were then very small plants, not more 
than six inches high. The tree is now fifteen feet high, by six feet in diameter, and is regularly 
branched from the ground; the habit being very graceful. Hr. Ivison remarks that it is perhaps 
the largest tree of the kind in Europe. 
Several other species of Hyristica furnish analogous products, though none of them are equal 
to H. moschata. The H. tomentosa of Northern India is said to furnish what are called Jong or 
male nutmegs, which, although possessing the same qualities as the genuine kind, are much in¬ 
ferior in flavour; the fruit of H. officinalis is used as a tonic in Brazil; the fruits of H. spuria 
and H. acuminata are used in the East Indies as substitutes for the time Nutmeg. The coarse 
unpleasant Nutmegs of Santa Be are produced by H. Otoba. Some species have insipid nuts, as 
H. fatua.—A. H. 
Culture. —He have much pleasure in inserting in this place the following accoimt, by 
Hr. Ivison, of the treatment which has been adopted at Syon :— 
“ On the arrival of the young plants from Calcutta, they were potted in Norwood loam and silver 
sand, and plunged in gentle bottom heat in a low wooden stove, in which situation they remained for 
nearly a twelvemonth before making any progress. In the following year they made a start, and, by 
the end of it, it was found necessary to remove them to the tropical fruiting house, in order to give 
them space to develope their growth. 
YOL. II. 
