s considerably, being spherical, oblong,
and egg-shaped, but the nearer they approach sphericity of figure, the
more highly are they prized.

There is also a great variety in the foliage of different trees, from
elliptic, oblong and ovate, to almost purely lanceolate-shaped leaves.
This difference seems to indicate in some measure the character of the
produce; trees with large oblong leaves appearing to have the largest
and most spherical fruit, and those with small lanceolate leaves being
in general more prolific bearers, but of inferior quality.

Whilst its congener the clove has been spread over Asia, Africa, and
the West Indies, the nutmeg refuses to flourish out of the Malayan
Archipelago, except as an exotic, all attempts to introduce it largely
into other tropical countries having decidedly failed. The island of
Ternate, which is in about the same latitude as Singapore, is said to
have been the spot where it was truly indigenous, but no doubt the
tree is to be found on most of the Moluccas. At present the place of
its origin is unproductive of the spice, having been robbed of its
rich heritage by the policy of the Dutch, who at an early period
removed the plantations to the Banda isles for better surveillance,
where they still remain and flourish. But although care was formerly
taken to extirpate the tree on the Moluccas, the mace-feeding pigeons
have frustrated the machinations of man, and spread it widely through
the Archipelago of islands extending from the Moluccas to New Guinea.
Its circle of growth extends westward as far as Pinang, or Prince of
Wales Island, where, although an exotic, it has been cultivated as a
mercantile speculation with success for many years. Westward of Pinang
there are no plantations, looking at the subject in a mercantile point
of view. The tree is to be found, indeed, in Ceylon, and the West
Coast of India, but to grow it as a speculation out of its indigenous
limits, is as likely to prove successful as the cultivation of apples
and pears in Bengal.

In the Banda Isles, where the tree may be considered as indigenous, no
further attention is paid to its cultivation than setting out the
plants in parks, under the shade of large forest trees, with long
horizontal branches, called "Canari" by the natives. There it attains
a height of 50 feet and upwards, whereas from 20 to 30 feet may be
taken as a fair average of the trees in the Straits' Settlements; but
notwitstanding our pigmy p