Embryo; which, as I have not had the opportunity of seeing it in a good 
state myself, I have, in the figure annexed, copied from G“RTNER, 
For the opportunity of offering to the lovers of botany a re- 
presentation, with details, and a description of this rare and 
highly interesting plant (which, though existing, I believe, in 
the stoves of a few gardens in Britain, has blossomed in none), 
I am indebted to the Reverend LaNsDOUNE GUILDING, who 
sent me an admirable drawing of it, from plants cultivated in- 
the Island of St Vincent’s, and also notes, from which I have 
drawn up much of the present account. 
The Natural Order to which the Nutmeg belongs, has 
been, with propriety, separated from the Order Lawr2, in which 
Jussieu had placed it, and the name of Myristice given to it 
by Mr Brown, in his Prodromus Fl. Nov. Hollandic. That — 
author further remarks, that it is not allied to any other, but 
easily distinguishable by the “ dicecious flowers, 3-lobed pe- 
rianth, connate filaments, 1-seeded free ovary, with an erect 
ovule, and an embryo imbedded in the base of a wrinkled al- 
bumen.” The only genera known by Mr Brown to belong 
to this order, besides Myristica, are the Knema of LourEtRo, 
which has the anthers distinct, and the Vi irola of AUBLET, 
which has only 3 anthers. 
Myristica officinalis, like most plants which are extensive- 
ly cultivated, seems to be liable to variations, and these princi- 
pally in the size and form of the fruit. ‘Those trees which pro- 
duce rounded seeds, have been, by the inhabitants of the Eas- 
tern Archipelago, called Male Nutmegs, those bearing the el- 
liptical seeds, the Female ; terms which are certainly not allow- 
ed by naturalists. | 
The Nutmeg Tree is a native generally of the Molucca 
Isles, but is confined principally to that group denominated 
the Islands of Banda, lying in Lat. 4° 30’ S.; and of these 
islands, ten in number, the Hollanders, who possessed them, 
restricted the culture of nutmegs to four exclusively, viz. Neyra, 
Pulo-aya, Pelorona, and Lontoira. The Dutch destroyed 
them 1 in others of their insular territories; and so jealous were 
