BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. 
ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
Vol. V. APRIL, 1899. No. 4 
THE NUTMEG. 
{Myristica fragrans Hauthryn.) 
DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER. 
Northwestern University School of Pharmacy. 
Dum: A gilt nutmeg. 
Biron: A lemon. 
Long: Stuck with cloves. 
— Shakespeare, "Love's Labor Lost" V., 2. 
THE nutmeg is the spice obtained 
from a medium-sized evergreen 
tree reaching a height of from 
twenty-five to forty feet. This 
tree is dioecious, that is the male 
flowers and the female flowers are 
borne upon different " plants. The 
male flower consists of a column of 
from six to ten stamens enclosed by 
a pale yellow tubular perianth. The 
female flowers occur singly, in twos 
or threes, in the axils of the leaves; they 
also have a pale yellow perianth. The 
ovary has a single seed which finally 
matures into the nutmeg and mace. 
The mature seed is about, one and one- 
fourth inches long and somewhat less in 
transverse diameter, so that it is some- 
what oval in outline. It is almost en- 
tirely enveloped by a fringed scarlet 
covering known as arillus or arillode 
(mace). The entire fruit, nut, mace, 
and all, is about the size of a walnut 
and like that nut has a thick outer cov- 
ering, the pericarp, which is fibrous and 
attains a thickness of about half an 
inch. At maturity the pericarp splits 
in halves from the top to the base or 
point of attachment. The leaves of 
the nutmeg tree are simple, entire, and 
comparatively large. 
The English word nutmeg and the 
apparently wholly different German 
Muskatnuss, are etymologically similar. 
The "meg" of nutmeg is said to be de- 
rived from the old English "muge," 
which is from the Latin "muscus," mean- 
ing musk, in reference to the odor. 
"Muskat" of the German name is also 
derived from "muscus" and "nuss" means 
nut, so we have in both instances "musk 
nut." The arillus was named Musca- 
tenbluome (nutmeg flower) by the early 
Dutch because of its bright red color. 
It is generally believed that nutmeg 
and mace were not used in ancient 
times. Martius maintains that the 
word macis mentioned in a comedy by 
Plautus (260-180 B. C.) refers to mace. 
Fliickiger, however, is inclined to be- 
lieve that this word refers to the bark 
of some tree of India, as the word is 
frequently used in that sense by noted 
writers, as Scnbonius, Largus, Dioscori- 
des, Galenus, Plinius, and others. About 
800 or 900 A. D., the Arabian physi- 
cians were familiar with nutmeg and 
were instrumental in introducing it into 
western countries. The Europeans first 
used nutmegs in church ceremonies as 
incense. Previous to 1200 nutmegs 
were quite expensive, but soon became 
cheaper as the plant was more and more 
extensively cultivated. About 1214 
they found their way into pharmacy and 
began to be used among cosmetics. 
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