Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/413

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 397 loss of the shell, the natural and only effectual protection of the nutmeg, great numbers are lost. "When, m the year 1810, the British conquered the Spice Islands, there were found in store the enormous quantity of 37,184 lbs. of nutmegs, mouldered into dust and quite useless. The quan- tity of broken, bad, and rotten nutmegs, can- not be estimated at an average, according to the present management, at less than IO5 per cent, of the fruit as it comes from the tree, so that the true proportions, in the view of productiveness, will be as follows in 100 parts : moulder into dust. If the nutmeg, after the shell has been taken off, be left for some time unlimed, the following appearances will present themselves, — a small hole at the side or base of the nut, never, I believe, at the apex, out of which a hard cased black fly may be seen to spring, or there will be a quantity of minute dust, which, upon examination, will be found to consist of very diminutive insects engendered in the nut, and already successful in destroying its interior substance. Many nutmegs apparently sound, and when mi- nutely inspected, exhibiting no trace of a hole on the sur- face, will, on cutting them open, be found to contain a small white maggot. All the different stages of the progress of the animal may be traced, and will render it evident that the fly did not enter the ripe fruit. It follows, therefore, that the egg must have been deposited in the flower, and that the animal grows with the growth of the nut, requiring the removal of the shell, and the action of the external air to bring it to perfection."