Useful Knowledge: Volume 2. Vegetables / Or, a familiar account of the various productions of nature

by William Bingley

The gathering of nutmegs is performed by persons who ascend the trees for that purpose, and pull the branches to them with long hooks. The husks are stripped off in the woods, and the remaining part of the fruit, with its surrounding mace, is taken home. After the mace has been carefully stripped off, with a small knife, the nuts, which are still covered with their woody shell, are dried, first in the sun, and then upon a frame of split bamboos placed over a slow fire, until, when shaken, the kernels are heard to rattle within the shells. These now easily fly to pieces when beaten with small sticks; and the nutmegs, being taken out, are soaked in sea-water and lime, and are then thrown in great numbers together to heat, by which their vegetating principle is destroyed. The nutmegs are finally sorted into parcels, according to their quality, and packed in bags for sale and exportation.

The nutmegs vended at the East India Company's sales in 1804, amounted in weight to 117,936 pounds, and produced 54,733l. exclusive of the duties. This kind of spice has long been employed both for culinary and medicinal purposes. Distilled with water, nutmegs afford a large portion of essential oil, which resembles, in flavour, the spice itself. When heated and pressed they yield a considerable quantity of limpid yellow oil. In the shops a thick and fragrant kind is sold, which, though called oil of mace, is, in reality, expressed from the nutmeg. The best oil of this description is imported from the East Indies, in stone jars. Oil of nutmegs is chiefly made from the imperfect fruit, and such as would be unfit for the European market.

Mace, or the covering of the nutmeg, that lies betwixt the outer coat and the shell, is an unctuous membrane, first of a light red, and afterwards, when dried, and as we see it, of yellowish colour. After it is taken from the shell it is exposed to the sun, then moistened with sea-water, and finally so far dried as to allow of its being packed in bales for exportation. In these it is pressed closely down, by which its fragrance and peculiar qualities are preserved. Mace is liable to seizure if imported in packages of less than 300 pounds' weight. We usually see it in flakes each about an inch in length, and presenting a great variety of ramifications. This spice has a very fragrant and agreeable odour, and, to most persons, a pleasant, though somewhat acrid, taste. It possesses nearly all the virtues of the nutmeg, but with less astringency; and, like that, is employed in numerous ways, both in culinary preparations and medicine.

In the island of Banda it is sometimes customary to boil the entire fruit of the nutmeg-tree, and afterwards to preserve it in syrup, and also to pickle it in spiced vinegar, in nearly the same manner as we pickle walnuts. In several parts of the East the inhabitants preserve the outer husk of the nutmeg as a sweetmeat, or eat it stewed with other food.

257. The DATE is a fruit shaped somewhat like a large acorn, and covered externally with a yellowish membrane or skin, which contains a fine, soft, and sweetish pulp, and, in the centre, an oblong, hard stone.

The trees (Phœnix dactylifera) which produce this fruit, grow chiefly on the shores of the Mediterranean, are forty feet and upwards in height, have an upright stem, marked through their whole length with protuberances, and terminated at the summit with a cluster of winged leaves or branches, each eight or nine feet in length.

The cultivation of the date is attentively pursued on the African coast of the Mediterranean; in several parts of Persia, Arabia, and even in Spain. The latter country, however, is not sufficiently warm to ripen the fruit in perfection, without the constant labour of the cultivator. He is obliged to ascend the trees, from time to time, to examine the flowers and turn them towards the sun. This is chiefly done in the spring of the year; and, during the month of August, another and much more dangerous operation is requisite, namely, to tie all the branches into one bundle, and cover them over with broom. To make this bundle, the person employed is obliged to leap, as it were, over the flexible branches, for the purpose of surrounding and uniting them with a cord. This operation over, he places a ladder at the bottom of the tree, on which he stands to make a second band; he then places his ladder on this second band, ascends and ties the top with a third cord. His bundle being formed, he throws down his instruments, replaces his ladder by a gradation contrary to the former, and descends, from band to band, to the stem of the tree, down which he slides to the bottom.

Among the Africans and Egyptians the date constitutes a principal article of food, and, as such, it is considered both wholesome and nutritive. Its name is a word, formed of dacte or dactylus, implying a finger, from an imaginary resemblance which this fruit has to the end of the finger. Although dates, in general, are of yellowish colour, some are black, some white, and others brown: some also are sweet, and others bitter. The best are called royal dates, and are imported into this country from Tunis.

Each tree produces ten or twelve bunches of fruit, which, when gathered, are hung up in a dry place, until so much of their moisture is evaporated as to allow of their being packed in boxes for exportation.

Nearly all the parts of the date-tree are useful. The wood, though of spongy texture, is employed for the beams and rafters of houses, and for implements of husbandry, which are said to be very durable. The pith of the young trees is eaten, as well as the young and tender leaves. From the old leaves and their stalks the women and children of Valencia make mats, baskets, and other utensils; and from other filamentous parts, ropes and different kinds of cordage are manufactured. A considerable traffic is carried on in these leaves, which, under the name of palms, are sent to Italy, to be used in the grand religious ceremonies of Palm Sunday. In Persia an ardent spirit is distilled from the fruit; and, in many places, the stones are ground to make oil, and the paste that is left is given as food to cattle and sheep.