Myristica fragrans shiny seed, long by about across, with a red or crimson covering (an aril). The seed is the source of nutmeg, the aril the source of mace. "Myristica fragrans" was given a binomial name by the Dutch botanist Maartyn Houttuyn in 1774. It had earlier been described by Georg Eberhard Rumphius, among others. The specific epithet "fragrans" means "fragrant". 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
Mace (unit) other units, was used in weight-denominated silver currency system. A common denomination was 7 mace and 2 candareens, equal to one silver Chinese yuan. Like other similar measures such as tael and catty, the English word "mace" derives from Malay, in this case through Dutch "maes", plural "masen", from Malay "mas" which, in turn, derived from Sanskrit "", a word related to "mash," another name for the urad bean, and masha, a traditional Indian unit of weight equal to 0.97 gram. This word is unrelated to other uses of mace in English. The Chinese word for mace is "qian" (),