NUTMEGS. The two favourite apices of nutmeg and mace are derived from the same plant. This plant is the lifyristfca Moachatn, a tree native of the Molucoa Islands, especially of Banda, but cultivated in Java, Sumatra, and elsewhere in the East, and of late years in Guiana and several of the West India Islands ; but the best are produced in the first-men tioned islands. The fruit is of the size and form of a peach, and when ripe the fleshy part separates into two nearly equal halves, expos, ing' the ketriei surrounded by an arillae, the farmer being the autnteg, the latter the mace, The odour of the mace in strongly aromatic; the taste aromatic, but sharp and acrid, It contains both a Axed. nil (in small mieptity) and a volatile oil, Qno pound of mace yields, by dintilintion one ounce of volatile oil. The fixed oil is not an article of European -corn, and what in termed the expressed oft of niece from the nutmeg, and should bear its name. An inferior mare is obtained
from various species of Myristicrt, The pro perties of Mace are Similar to those of the nutmeg, Two or three gatherings pf the nutmegs are made in the year, generally in July, qr August, in December, and in April. The third period yields the beet nutmegs, The collected nuts are dried in the sun or by the beat of a mode, rate fire till the shells split! they are then sorted and dipped in lime-water, to preserve them from the attack of insects, Those of good quality ehould he heavy, each weighing on an average 90 grains, The quantities of these spices imported in the last three years were as follow :-, Mace. Nutmegs.
1818 47Al2 lbs, 036,420 lbs.
184Q 45,1100 „ 221,021 „ lap 76,365 „ 312,418 „