The nutmeg tree grows to a height of thirty to fifty feet. The ripe
fruit looks somewhat like the apricot on the outside. It bursts in two
and shows the dark nut covered with mace, a bright scarlet. This is
stripped off and pressed flat. The shells are broken open when perfectly
dry, and the nuts powdered with lime to prevent the attacks of worms.
The tree bears the sixth or seventh year,--the nuts becoming ripe six
months after the flower appears. Twenty thousand nuts are sometimes
gathered from one tree.
Other important growths we find to be pepper, which begins to bear when
five years old and may bear for thirty years; the vanilla bean, which
proves to be very profitable when properly cared for; and cacao, which
requires eight years to come to full fruitage, but is an invaluable
plant.