Myristica fragrans Myristica fragrans Myristica fragrans is an evergreen tree indigenous to the Moluccas (or the Spice Islands) of Indonesia. It is important as the main source of the spices nutmeg and mace. It is widely grown across the tropics including Guangdong and Yunnan in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Grenada in the Caribbean, Kerala in India, Sri Lanka and South America. "Myristica fragrans" is a evergreen tree, usually tall, but occasionally reaching and rarely reaching up to find only in Tidore. The alternately arranged leaves are dark green, long by wide with petioles about long. The species is dioecious, i.e. "male" or
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy were becoming available. The recipe for "Elder-Shoots, in Imitation of Bamboo" makes use of a homely ingredient to substitute for a foreign one that English travellers had encountered in the Far East. The same recipe also calls for a variety of imported spices to flavour the pickle: "an Ounce of white or red Pepper, an Ounce of Ginger sliced, a little Mace, and a few Corns of Jamaica Pepper." There are two recipes for making chocolate, calling for costly imported ingredients like musk (an aromatic obtained from musk deer) and ambergris (a waxy substance from sperm whales), vanilla and cardamon: