A most substantial breakfast was quickly served in great variety, and placed in the verandah, for the benefit of the air. With a cloudless sky above, the most beautiful scenery surrounding us, and a hospitable reception, we had nothing more to desire. The government house is situated in a park, embosomed in flowers, fruit, and forest-trees, guarded by line hedges and a neat bamboo fence. The road around the grounds was lined with the male and female nutmeg-trees, the clove-tree, and the graceful areca-palm, laden with its yellow fruit, hanging in large clusters under the branches. Here and there were interspersed beautiful flowering trees in great variety, and creeping plants intertwined among the branches. The female nutmeg was loaded with fruit resembling, in colour, a straw-coloured peach, but pointed slightly towards the stalk, like a pear. The fruit which had become ripe, had burst about half an inch of its outer-covering, and displayed a beautiful network of scarlet mace, covering a black shining hard thick shell, in which lay concealed the nutmeg itself. The bark of the nutmeg-tree is smooth, and of a brownish-gray colour; the branches are handsome and spreading; the leaves, elliptical and pointed, afford a very grateful aromatic odour: on the same tree may be seen the fruit in its progressive stages to maturity, and the white blossoms hanging in clusters, encircled by the yellow leaves from which they have burst. From the centre of the flower proceeds an oblong reddish knob, which is the fruit. I was told that a tree which produces, daily, throughout the year, one nutmeg, is considered very productive and profitable, even at the present low prices. At the Dutch company’s late sales, they brought from fifty-two to fifty-six dollars the pecul, equal to one hundred and thirty-three and one third pounds avoirdupois; and the mace, from ninety-two to ninety-five dollars. The male nutmeg-tree, being necessary to the propagation of the fruit, cannot be dispensed with; it is generally filled with white blossoms, and interspersed among its female companions. The operation of loosening the inner shell of the nutmeg is a tedious process, and is performed over a slow fire; when the shells are sufficiently loose to rattle they are broken, assorted, soaked several times in water and lime--then placed in dry boxes or small rooms to sweat; and finally, are packed in dry chunana or lime made from seashells. The small and oblong fruit is not merchantable; the best kind is large, round, heavy and firm, of a lightish-gray colour on the outside; a strong fragrant smell; and when pricked, the oil should readily ooze out.