Show nutmeg and mace the banda Islands where a hurricane re bently recently destroyed the he nutmeg and m mace maco i sisa crops inflicting damage to the extent of are twelve very small but important islands in the archipelago about fifty miles 1 south of the is island landof of beram they belong belongs to the dutch and the population atlon amounts to about soul whom are europeans the banda Is lands are all lofty and volcanic and goonhong apes ilses feet above the sea and is one of the most active volcanoes feihe in the tho malay archipelago subjecting the other islands to the ravages of frequent and destructive eruptions and earthquakes the four largest of the banda magda banda Bagda islands are exclusively appropriated abed to the cultivation of the nutmeg tree pounds of nutmegs and pounds of mabe mace being produced annual annually lyt the nutmeg dreels tree is about thirty feet high resembling an or orange i ange tree the fruit which appears on oil the tree mingled with the pale yellow flowers is the size ofa ota of a small p peach each I 1 an and d is at first of a light green grean color and when ripe is yellow fellow and marked with a longitudinal furrow farrow the external covering athirst at first thick and fleshy and filled with a bitter astringent juice afterwards ter wards becomes dry and separating into two calv halves es discloses a scarlet network or membrane known as mace which covers dovers a thin thia brown shell which contains the kernel or nutt nutmeg neg the fruit is gathered by hand and the ou outside t covering being rejected the mace is carefully separated and dried in the sun the nuts are dried in the sun or in ovens and exposed to smoke till the kernel rattle rattles the shells are then broken open and nd the kernels having been steeped in lime water are packed in chests for exportation the nutmeg tree is produced from the seed and does not flower until the ninth year when it bears fruit and flowers together without intermission it is said for seventy years yearb As the nutmeg tree does not arrive at maturity until its ninth year the recent hurricane must have entirely destroyed the plantations in the banda islands or else the report would not have been transmitted that the growers were utterly ruined and would not be i able to obtain a crop for several years |