The tissue of the seed can be cut with equal facility in any direction. By the microscopic study of a transverse section of a cut nutmeg we find the testa consists mainly of long, thin, radially arranged, rigid cells, which are closely interlaced and do not exhibit any distinct cavities. The endopleora, which forms the adhering coat of the kernel and penetrates into it, consists of soft-walled, red-brown tissue, with small scattered bundles of vessels, thereby imparting the peculiar marbled appearance so familiar in a cut nutmeg. In the outer layer the endopleora exhibits small collapsed cells, but the tissue which fills the folds that dip into the interior consists of much larger cells. The tissue of the albumen is formed of soft-walled parenchyma which is densely filled with conspicuous starch grains and with fat partly crystallized. Among the prismatic crystals of fat, large, thick, rhombic or six-sided tables may often be observed. With these are associated grains of albuminoid matter, partly crystallized. In carefully made preparations from the whole nutmeg, the structure above described may be made out by care and patience, but in the ground only the interior parenchyma cells with their starch contents can be seen when mounted in water, with the alternate use of common and polarized light. The fatty crystals are not observed and the fragments of the endopleora, or red-brown tissue, are only detected by their colors. In chloral-hydrate the starch cells and grains are swollen, but the red-brown tissue is much more transparent, sufficiently so, in fact, to reveal any differences between it and any adulterant which might bear a resemblance. There are but few bundles of fibers to be found, and the structure as a whole will be found so simple that the addition of any foreign material can be readily detected. The nutmeg owes its flavor and aroma to the oil it contains, which is soluble in alcohol and may be obtained by distillation of the pulverized nuts, the yield being from 8 to 10 per cent. The oil is straw colored, with a specific gravity of 0.093, consisting principally of a hydrocarbon, C_{10}H_{16}, boiling at 165 degrees C. This appears by research to be a mixture of at least two hydrocarbons—one a terpene, boiling at 163 degrees; the other, ordinary cymene, the cymene being extracted by treating the mixture of hydrocarbons with sulphuric acid, whereby the terpene becomes resinized and, on distillation with water, the cymene passes over unaltered; when purified, this was found to be identical with all the other known cymenes.