larger than that of the clove; the leaves are more handsome in the outline, and are broader in proportion to the length. They are of a fine green on the upper surface, and grey beneath. When the trees have attained the age of about nine years they begin to bear. They are diacious, having male or barren flowers upon one tree, and female.or fertile upon another. The flowers of both are small, white, bell-shaped, and without any calyx; the embryo fruit appearing at the bottom of the female flower, in the form of a little reddish knob. The female flowers grow on slender peduncles, two or three together, but it is rare that more than one flower in each bunch comes to maturity and produces fruit; this resembles in appearance and size a small peach, but it is rather more pointed at both ends. The outer coat is about half an inch thick when ripe, at which time it bursts at the side and discloses the spices. These are

4

The Mace, having the appearance of a leafy network of a fine red colour, which seems the brighter by being contrasted with the shining black of the shell that it surrounds. In general, the more brilliant its hue the better is its quality. This is laid to dry in the shade for a short space; but if dried too much, a great part of its flavour is lost by evaporation, while it is also more apt to break in packing. On the other hand, if packed too moist, it either ferments or breeds worms. After being dried, it is packed in bags and pressed together very tightly.

The Nutmeg. The shell is larger and harder than that of a filbert, and could not, in the state in which it is gathered, be broken without injuring the nut. On that account the nuts are successively dried in the sun and then by fire-heat, till the kernel shrinks so much as to rattle in the shell, which is then easily

broken. After this, the nuts are three times soaked in sea-water and lime; they are then laid in a heap, where they heat, and get rid of their superfluous moisture by evaporation. This process is pursued to preserve the substance and flavour of the nut, as well as to destroy its vegetative power. Dry lime is the best package for nutmegs.

There are two varieties, the royal and the green. The royal is the largest, and it produces mace longer than the nut; on the nut of the green the mace reaches only half-way down. A good nutmeg should be large, round, and heavy, of a light grey colour, and finely marbled in the cross section.

Oil of nutmegs is obtained by pressure from the broken kernels; a pound of them generally yields three ounces of oil. According to Neumann's experiments, the oil produced is one third of the weight of nutmeg; it is yellow, of the consistence of tallow, and of a pleasant smell. This is a fixed oil, but a transparent volatile oil may likewise be obtained by distillation, in the proportion of part of the weight of nutmeg used.

There are other spices, natives of the Moluccas, the principal of these are Massoy bark, and a species of cinnamon, or cassia; but these, though much used in Chinese and Japanese cookery, are of inferior consequence, and nearly confined to the commerce of the East.

GINGER-Zingiber officinale-is a native of the south-east of Asia and the adjacent isles. It was naturalized in America very soon after the discovery of that country by the Spaniards; indeed, at so early a period that it is scarcely believed to be an exotic, and is supposed to have been found indigenous in the Western World. Acosta relates that a person named Francisco de Mendoza first transplanted it from the East Indies into New Spain, where its cul

tivation was diligently pursued by the Spanish Ame ricans to no small extent, as, from the testimony of the same author, 22,053 cwt. were exported thence to Europe in the year 1547*.

The plant is now cultivated in great quantities in the West Indies, especially in the island of Jamaica. Ginger is imported into this country under the form of dried roots, and as a preserve. We receive it both from the East and West Indies, but that from the latter

*Edwards's West-Indies, vol. ii.

is much superior in quality to the former. British plantation ginger pays eleven shillings per cwt., import duty, and all other is not admitted under fiftythree shillings per cwt.; these two causes unite in confining the home consumption of ginger almost entirely to that coming from the West Indies.

The ginger plant has been cultivated in this country as a stove exotic since about the year 1600. It has a perennial root, which creeps and increases under ground in tuberous joints, from each of which arises in the spring a green reed-like stalk of about two feet and a half in height, having narrow and lanceolate leaves. The stem is annual; the flowering stalk rises directly from the root, ending in an oblong scaly spike; from each of these scales a single white and blue flower is produced. The ginger of commerce is distinguished into black and white; but the difference of colour depends wholly on the modes of preparation. For both of these kinds the tubers are allowed to be ripe, that is, the roots are taken up after the annual stalks are withered. For the black, they are scalded in boiling water and then dried in the sun; and for the white, they are scraped clean and dried carefully without being scalded. The best and soundest roots are selected for the latter process, and therefore white ginger is, independent of the manner of preparation, superior to the black, and it always bears a much higher price in the market. When a preserve is to be made of the roots, they are dug up in the sap, the stalks not being then more than five or six inches long. For this purpose the young roots are scalded, then washed in cold water and afterwards carefully peeled. This process lasts for three or four days, during which period the water is frequently changed.

When the cleansing is complete, the tubers are put into jars, and covered with weak syrup of

sugar. After a day or two the weak syrup is removed, and replaced by a stronger; and the shifting is two or three times repeated, increasing the strength of the syrup each time. The preserve thus formed is one of the finest that is made; and the removed syrups are not lost, but fermented into a pleasant liquor, which gets the name of "cool drink."

The manner of cultivating ginger is extremely simple, requiring little skill or care; it is propagated with as much ease and nearly in the same manner as potatoes are in Great Britain.

PEPPER-Piper.-The species of this genus are very numerous-botanists describing about sixtysome of which are to be found in every quarter of the world except Europe. The Piper nigrum produces the black and white pepper of commerce. This pepper-bush is a perennial plant found native upon the slopes of mountains in the southern parts of both the Indian peninsulas, especially on the coast of Malabar. It is likewise cultivated to a great extent in Sumatra, Java, and the adjacent places. Pepper at one time formed the principal export from Java; it was chiefly cultivated in Bantam, and likewise in the dependencies of that province in the southern part of Sumatra; these districts producing the greater part of the supply exclusively furnished by the Dutch to the European market. It is, how ever, a satisfaction to find that the greedy spirit which would appropriate all to self, may sometimes, in its unjust efforts to secure this end, defeat its own purpose. We learn from Sir T. S. Raffles, that "the system by which it (pepper) was procured, was too oppressive and unprincipled in its nature, and too impolitic in its provisions to admit of long duration. It was calculated to destroy the energies of the country, and with them the source whence the fruits of the monopoly proceeded. In the year 1811, ac