Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/724

666 N U T N U T genera, inhabiting the Indian Region, and remarkable for their beautiful blue plumage ; but some doubt may for the present be entertained as to the affinity of the Australian Sittella, with four or five species, found in one or another part of that continent, which doubt is increased by the late Mr Forbes s discovery (Proc. Zool. Society, 1882, pp. 569-571) that the genera Acanthisitta and Xenicus, pecu liar to New Zealand, and hitherto generally placed in the Family Sittidx, belong really to the Mesomyodian group and are therefore far removed from it. The unquestioned members of the Sittidx seem to be intermediate between the Paridse and the Certhiidse, and some authors comprehend them in either one or the other of those groups. (A. N.) NUTMEG. The spice known in commerce under this name is the kernel of the seed of Myristica fragrans, Houtt., a dioecious evergreen tree, about 50 to 60 feet high, found wild in the Banda Islands and a few of the neighbouring islands, extending to New Guinea but not to the Philip pines. Nutmeg and mace are al most exclusively obtained from the Banda Islands, al though the culti vation has been attempted with varying success in Singapore, Penang, Bengal, Reunion, Brazil, French Guiana, and the West In dies. The trees yield fruit in eight years after sowing the seed, reach their prime in twenty-five years, and bear for sixty years or longer. Almost the whole surface of the Banda Islands is planted with nut meg trees, which thrive under the shade of the lofty Canarium commune. The light volcanic soil, shade, and excessive moisture of these islands, where it rains more or less during the whole year, seem exactly to suit the requirements of the nutmeg tree. In Bencoolen the tree bears all the year round, but the chief harvest takes place in the later months of the year, and a smaller one in April, May, and June. In the Banda Islands the fruits are collected in small neatly-made oval baskets at the end of a bamboo, which prevents bruising, the baskets being open for half their length on one side and furnished with a couple of small prongs projecting from the top, by which the fruit-stalk is broken, the fruit falling into the basket. The ripe fruit is about 2 inches in diameter, of a rounded pear- shape, and when mature splits into two halves, ex posing a crimson arillus surrounding a single seed. When the fruit is collected the pericarp is first removed ; then the arillus is carefully stripped off and dried, in which state it forms the mace of commerce. The seed consists of a thin hard testa or shell enclosing a kernel, which, when dried, is the nutmeg. To prepare the nutmegs for use, the seed enclosing the kernel is dried at a gentle heat in a drying-house over a smouldering fire for about two months, the seeds being turned every second or third day. When thoroughly dried the shells are broken with a wooden mallet or flat board and the nutmegs picked out Flowers, Fruit, and Seed of Nutmeg. and sorted, the smaller and inferior ones being reserved for the expression of the fixed oil which they contain, and which forms the so-called oil of mace. The dried nutmegs are then rubbed over with dry sifted lime. The process of liming, which originated at the time when the Dutch held a monopoly of the trade, was com menced with the view of preventing the germination of the seeds, which were formerly immersed for three months in milk of lime for this purpose, and a preference is still manifested in some countries for nutmegs so prepared. It has, however, been shown that this treatment is by no means necessary, since exposure to the sun for a week destroys the vitality of the kernel. Nor is the dry liming process needful, for nutmegs keep well in their natural shell, in which form they are usually exported to China. The weight of the shells, however, adds one-third to the cost of freight, hence this plan is not generally adopted. Penang nutmegs are never limed. The entire fruit preserved in syrup is used as a sweetmeat in the Dutch East Indies. " Oil of mace," or nutmeg butter, is a solid fatty substance of a reddish-brown colour, obtained by grinding the refuse nutmegs to a fine powder, enclosing it in bags and steaming it over large cauldrons for five or six hours, and then com pressing it while still warm between powerful wedges, the brownish fluid which flows out being afterwards allowed to solidify. Nutmegs yield about one-fourth of their weight of this substance. It is partly dissolved by cold alcohol, the remainder being soluble in ether. The latter portion, about 10 per cent, of the weight of the nutmegs, consists chiefly of myristin, which is a compound of myristic acid, C 14 H 28 O 2 , with glycerin. The fat which is soluble in alcohol appears to consist, according to Schmidt and Roemer (Arch. Pharm. [3], xxi. pp. 34-48), of free myristic and stearic acids ; the brown colouring matter has not been satisfactorily investigated. Nutmeg butter yields on dis tillation with water a volatile oil to the extent of about 6 per cent., consisting almost entirely of a hydrocarbon called myristicene, C 10 H 16 , boiling at 165 C. It is accom panied by a small quantity of an oxygenated oil, myristicol, isomeric with carvol, but differing from it in not forming a crystalline compound with hydrosulphuric acid. Mace con tains a similar volatile oil, macene, boiling at 160 C., which is said by Cloe z to differ from that of nutmegs in yielding a solid compound when treated with hydrochloric acid gas. The annual imports of nutmegs to the United Kingdom amount to from 400,000 to 800,000 ft>, each ft) consisting of about 110 fair-sized nutmegs, and of mace from 60,000 to 80,000 ft> per annum. The former are valued at from three to five shillings per ft), and mace at from one to three shillings per ft). 1 Long, wild, or male nutmegs, the produce of M. tomentosa and M. fatua, are sometimes imported in small quantities. Several species of Myristica yield fatty oils, which form commercial products, but none of these are remarkable for fragrance. The name nutmeg is also applied to other fruits or seeds in different countries. The Jamaica or calabash nutmeg is derived from Monodora Myristica, the Brazilian homCrypto- carya moschata, the Peruvian from Laurelia sempervirens, the New Holland or plume nutmeg from Atlierosperma moschata, the Madagascar or clove nutmeg iiGmAgathophyllum aroma- ticum, and the Californian or stinking nutmeg from Torreya myristica. The cotyledons of Nectandra Puchury were at one time offered in England as nutmegs. Seemann, in Hooker s Journ. Sot., 1852, p. 83; Collingwood, Journ. Lin. Soc. Bot., 1869, p. 45 ; Lums<Laine, Pharm. Journ. [1], xi. p. 516 ; Wallace, Malay Archipelago, i. p. 452, 1869 ; Bickmore, Travels in E. Indian Archipelago, 1868, p. 225 ; Pharmacographia (2d. cd.), p. 502 ; Journ. Pharm. Soc. [3], xiii. p. 304. 1 This spice seems to be an especial favourite with the people of the United States, since the export to that country exceeds that to all Europe combined.