BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. VOL. V. APRIL, 1899. NO. 4 CONTENTS. Page THE NUTMEG. 145 AN ABANDONED HOME. 150 THE AMERICAN BARN OWL. 155 A SPRINGTIME. 156 THE KANGAROO. 157 INVITATION TO THE REDBREAST. 158 FEATHERS. 161 VISION AND SCENT OF VULTURES. 163 THE HOARY BAT. 167 THE COMING OF SPRING. 168 THE NASHVILLE WARBLER. 169 CHIEF SIMON POKAGON. 173 NATURE AT FIRST HAND. 175 THE QUAILS' QUADRILLE. 176 THE GRAPE. 179 PROSE POEMS OF IVAN TURGENIEF. 180 THE BLUEBIRD. 181 THE FIRST BLUEBIRD. 181 THE KIT FOX. 182 AMONG ANIMALS. 185 SPRING FASHIONS. 186 BIRDS THAT DO NOT SING. 188 THE HYACINTH. 191 A QUARREL BETWEEN JENNY WREN AND THE FLYCATCHERS. 192 THE NUTMEG. (_Myristica fragrans Hauthryn._) DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER. Northwestern University School of Pharmacy. _Dum_: A gilt nutmeg. _Biron_: A lemon. _Long_: Stuck with cloves. --_Shakespeare, "Love's Labor Lost," V. 2._ The nutmeg is the spice obtained from a medium-sized evergreen tree reaching a height of from twenty-five to forty feet. This tree is dioecious, that is the male flowers and the female flowers are borne upon different plants. The male flower consists of a column of from six to ten stamens enclosed by a pale yellow tubular perianth. The female flowers occur singly, in twos or threes, in the axils of the leaves; they also have a pale yellow perianth. The ovary has a single seed which finally matures into the nutmeg and mace. The mature seed is about one and one-fourth inches long and somewhat less in transverse diameter, so that it is somewhat oval in outline. It is almost entirely enveloped by a fringed scarlet covering known as arillus or arillode (mace). The entire fruit, nut, mace, and all, is about the size of a walnut and like that nut has a thick outer covering, the pericarp, which is fibrous and attains a thickness of about half an inch. At maturity the pericarp splits in halves from the top to the base or point of attachment. The leaves of the nutmeg tree are simple, entire, and comparatively large.