American Watchman And Delaware Advertiser

From the Flowers of Modern Travels.

THE NUTMEG.

The nutmeg tree is a beautiful vegetable.--The stem, with a smooth brown bark, rises perfectly straight. Its strong and numerous branches proceed regularly from it in an oblique direction upwards. They bear large oval leaves pendulous from them, some a foot in length. The upper and outer surface of the leaf is smooth, and of a deep agreeable green.--The under and inner surface is marked with a strong nerve in the middle of the leaf, from the foot stalk to the point; and from this middle nerve others proceed obliquely towards the point and edges of the leaf; but what distinguishes most this inner surface, is its uniform bright brown colour, without the least intermixture of green, and as if strewed all over with a fine brown powder.--The whole leaf is characterised by its fragrant odour, sufficiently denoting the fruit which the tree produces. This fruit, when fresh, is about the size and figure of a common nectarine. It consists of an outward rind, between which, and the inward shell, is found a reticulated membrane or divided skin, which, when dried, is called the mace. What is known by the name of nutmeg, is the kernel within the shell, and is soft in its original state.