The nutmeg fruit is about three inches long and about two inches in diameter, and is found intermingled with the flowers of the tree, it requires from six to nine months to mature; fruits all the year around in a hot, moist climate. In the Banda Islands the fruit hangs upon longer and more slender stalks than is the case in the Straits Settlement. The fruit hangs pendulous from the tree and is fleshy and firm. At first it is round or oval and smooth, much like a damson plum, but it soon takes on the marked longitudinal, dented line and pale green color—characteristics that give it more the appearance of a peach or an apricot. It finally changes to a golden or yellow color and to the shape of a pear when ripe. This outer covering, which is at first thin, gradually grows fleshy, abounding in an astringent mass which becomes dry and leathery, at which time it bursts open into two valves from the apex, disclosing a brilliant scarlet aril or net-like membrane, revealing the nutmeg kernel, which is closely invested in a thin brown shell, which separates the kernel from the aril or mace which envelopes both. In the early days the Dutch owned the Banda Islands. They attempted to control the nutmeg trade. Accordingly, they used to heat or lime the kernels before shipping, to keep them from sprouting and so to prevent the propagation of the trees. At one time they burned three piles of nutmegs, each as large as a church, to keep up the price. But Nature did not fancy this kind of business and a large pigeon, called the “nutmeg pigeon,” also known by the name of walor and nut eater (species of carpophoga), was attracted by the bright color of the mace and, feeding on it extensively, swallowing the mace and rejecting the nutmegs, accomplished what the Dutch tried to prevent, by planting the nuts in all the surrounding countries of Penang, China, Ceylon, and India. Thus the world at large was benefited. [Illustration: HARVESTING NUTMEGS] The brown shell which covers the nutmeg has about one-fourth the weight of the nutmeg kernel. When the nutmegs are exported without removing the shell they keep better, but the cost of freight to the importers is increased. The nutmeg fruit includes, first, the outer or fleshy membranous part; second, the substance covering the inner shell of the nutmeg, known as mace; next, the inner shell; and, finally, the kernel or nutmeg.