500 
ON  T1IE  CALIFORNIA  NUTMEG. 
ments  and  duties  have  prevented  me  from  fulfilling  my  promise  of 
communicating  to  you  the  result  of  further  inquiries. 
It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that  at  the  time  of  appearance  in  the 
Atlantic  cities  of  the  article  referred  to,  another  product,  resembling 
a  nutmeg,  should  have  been  accurately  described,  both  in  this  coun- 
try and  England,  a  native  of  California.  I  refer  to  the  fruit  of  the 
Torreya  Californica,  which  has  been  described  with  the  plant  from 
which  it  is  derived,  by  Prof.  Torrey,  in  the  N.Y.  Journ.  of  Pharmacy, 
and  transferred  to  the  pages  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
and  which  has  simultaneously  almost  been  described  and  figured 
under  the  name 
of  Torreya  my- 
ristica, by  Sir  W. 
Jackson  Hooker, 
in  the  Botanical 
Magazine.  This 
fact  has  led  to 
the  mistake  of  at- 
tributing the  drug 
Fruit  of  T-  Califo mica  vel  Mjri  tica.  in    the  market  to 
the  same  plant,  and  supposing  it  to  be  a  true  native  Californian. 
Through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Torrey,  I  have  examined  the  fruit 
of  the  Torreya,  and  find  that  it  is  to  a  certain  extent  similar, 
but  at  the  same  time  so  unlike  as  to  lead  to  no  difficulty  in  de- 
termining the  true  origin  of  either;  the  resemblance  to  a  nutmeg 
which  the  fruit  of  Dr.  Torrey's  plant  presents,  is  sufficiently 
remarkable  to  have  given  rise  to  the  appellation  "  California  nut- 
meg." 
You  will  recollect  I  stated  to  you  that  in  the  nutmeg  which  had 
been  introduced,  I  recognised  an  old  acquaintance,  having  had 
specimens  in  my  possession  during  nearly  twenty  years,  which  had 
been  given  to  me  by  our  late  friend,  Dr.  R,  E.  Griffith,  and  by 
whom  a  reference  had  been  made  to  it  in  his  interesting  Botanical 
Notices  published  in  the  early  numbers  of  the  Journal  of  Pharmacy. 
You  will  find  it  noticed  in  the  6th  vol.,  page  22,  under  the  name 
Myristica  tomentosa.  The  inspection  of  this  article,  enclosed  as  it 
is  in  some  of  the  specimens  by  its  arillus,  will  show  at  once  that  it 
is  a  true  Myristica  and  not  a  Taxoid.  When  conversing  with  Mr. 
Charles  Wister,  of  Germantown,  upon  the  subject,  he  told  me  that 
