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Updated: May 5, 2025
They had not the least knowledge of iron; and consequently nails, tools, and other articles made of that metal, and which are so greedily sought for in the more eastern isles, were here of no consideration. Cloth could be of no service to persons who go naked. Among the productions of the island, there is reason to believe that the nutmeg-tree might be mentioned.
The missionary Gili, who did not advance so far as the regions I am now describing, seems to confound the varimacu, or guarimacu, with the myristica, or nutmeg-tree of America.
In every direction we could see spreading out over the island a continuous forest of nutmeg-trees, shaded by the lofty kanary-trees. The nutmeg-tree is from twenty to five-and-twenty feet high, though sometimes its lofty sprays are fifty feet high. A foot above the ground the trunk is from eight to ten inches in diameter. The fruit before it is quite ripe greatly resembles a peach.
Heine, in his Lieder, chants of the mystic nutmeg-tree as the ideal growth of the tropical forest, for every stage of life and growth reveals some fresh beauty in delicate bloom, glistening foliage, and fruit of roseate gold.
The nutmeg is likewise dried, exposed a while to the action of smoke, and dipped several times into sea-water containing a weak solution of lime, to prevent it from turning mouldy. The clove-tree is smaller, and less copiously provided with foliage, than the nutmeg-tree. The buds form what are known to us as cloves; and, of course, are gathered before they have had time to blossom.
The nutmeg-tree is much like the peach, and there are a few of these in this island, but they grow mostly on the island of Banda, whence two or three ship-loads are exported yearly. The fruit of this tree consists of four parts. The first and outer rind is like that of a green walnut. The second, which we call mace, is dry and thin.
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