OCR Text |
Show 856 NUTMEG TREE. pends, and of a fixed oil, of a white colour, without taste or smell; and as the propetties which characterize it depend on the presenceof the volatile oil, the denomination of fixed oil, applied to it by the Edinburgh college, is less correct than that of ex. pressed oil, given to it by the other colleges, from the manner of its preparation. In the shops we meet with three sorts of. unctuous substances called oil of mace, though really expressed from the nutmeg. The best is brought from the East Indies, in stone jars; this is of a thick consistence, of the colour of mace, and anagreeable fragrant smell. The second sort, which is paler coloured, and much inferior in quality, comes from Holland, in solid-masses, generally flat, and of a square figure. The third, whichis the worst of all, and usually called commonoil of mace, is an artificial composition of suet, palm oil, and the like, flavoured with alittle genuine oil of nutmeg. Both mace and nutmegs are rather to be consideredas aromatic spices, than as articles of medicine. Fromthe essential oil they contain, they are heating andstimulating ; and they are added to other medicines for the sake of their agreeableflavour. CHIAN or CYPRUS TURPENTINE TREE. PISTACIA TEREBINTHUS. PREPARATION. Serrit oF Nurmec. (Spiritus Nucis Moschate, olim Aqua Nucis Moschate.) Take of bruised nutmegs, two ounces; proof spirit, a gallon; water, sufficient to prevent burning: Distil off a gallon. This is used to take off the bad flavour of medicine, and is a grateful cordial. Class XXII. Dicecia.. Order V. Pentandria. Essent. Gen. Cuar. Male flower—Anament: Calyx five-cleft: Corolla nene. Female flower—Calyx three-cleft: Corolla none: Styles two: Drupe one-seeded. Spec. Cuar. Leaves unequally pinnate: Leaflets ovato-lanceolate. EE DESCRIPTION. A LARGISH tree. Leaves pinnated. ending in an odd one. Pinnze opposite, in pairs, Pinne entire, elliptic. Flower incon- spicuous, HESTORY. The tree which yields the Chian turpentine grows in India, the north of Africa, and south of Europe; but the turpentine 1s principally collected in the islands of Chios and Cyprus, by wounding the tree. It does not differ from the other turpen- tines in any thing material, except in its price. |