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Show 2 ==anananiEAGaSESSRETIN SeNEC, Saee: a, HEE Sa, NUTMEG TREE. NUTMEGTREE. MYRISTICA MOSCHATA. Essent. Gen. Coar. Order X. Syngenesia. Male flow er—Calyx three-cleft: Corolla none: An- thers adhering about the upper part of the filament. Female flower— Calyx three-cleft: Corolla none: Style very short: Stigmabifid: Capsule drupaceous. Spec. Caar. Leaves lanceolate: Fruit smooth. eae DESCRIPTION. A cree reaching thirty feet. Leaves elliptical, pointed, un- dulated, nerved, alternate, on long footstalks, above of a bright green, beneath paler. Flowers small. Fruit round or oval, a drupe, splitting into two valves, which discovers the mace, which has a reticulated appearance, and divides into three portions, which closely invest a slender shell containing the seed, or nutmeg. WEST ORY. The tree which furnishes this elegant spice is a native of the Moluccaislands. them except Banda, from which all Europe has been hitherto supplied with mace and nutmeg. The entire fruit is about the size of a peach, and is marked with a longitudinal furrow. The external covering is smooth, fleshy, and bitter. As the fruit ripens, this bursts, and discloses the mace, which is an oily mem branous pulp, of a dark red colour, and aromatic flavour, divided into narrowbranchedslips. Within the maceis inclosed the nut, which consists of a brown, thin, hardshell, and a fatty perenchymatous kernel, of an oval shape. The fruit is gathered three times a year. The external covering is separated on the spot, and the mace and nut carried home, where they are carefully dried in the sun. After they are dried, the nutmegs are dipt in lime water, and the mace is sprinkled with salt water, probably to preserve them from the attacks of insects. Mace, by drying, acquires a reddish yellow colour. When goodit is flexible, thin, oily, of a deep colour, has a strong, agreeable smell, and an aromatic, bitterish acrid taste. When brittle, divided into fewer slips, of a whitish or pale yellow coJour, and of little smell, it is to be rejected. Nutmegs are oval, flattened at both ends, of a gray brown colour, and reticularly furrowed on the outside, of a yellow co« lour within, variegated with brown undulating lines, solid, hard, unctuous to the feel, and easily cut with a knife; and have a a Class XXTI. Moneecia. 835 It is not, how ever, cultivated in any of balsamic smell, and agreeable aromatic taste. The small round nutmegs are better than the large oval ones; and they should have a strong smell andtaste, and should neither be worm-eaten, musty, nor variegated with black lines. Their activity is, however, confined to the dark-coloured veins, which are not apt to be worm-eaten. Volatile oil of nutmeg.—Bydistillation nutmegs yield a considerable quantity of essential oil, of a whitish yellow colour, lighter than water, and possessing the aromatic taste and smell in an eminent degree. In doses of a few drops, it is a powerful carminative and stomachic. Expressed oil of mace.—Nutmegs also yield by expression a considerable quantity of limpid yellow oil, which, on cooling, acquires a sebaceous consistence. ‘They are first beaten to a soft paste in a warm mortar, theninclosed in a linen bag, exposed to the vapour of hot water, and squeezed in a press, of which the plates have been heated. It is a mixture of the volatile oil on which their flavour de. 3H 2 |