[Sca-cooks] Moluccan Spices was Re: It's DUCKS ;-)

[Terry Decker]

Nutmeg (Myristica fragans) is native to the Banda Islands, a group of five 
islands in the eastern Moluccas.  Related nutmegs, M. argentea and M. 
malabarica are native to New Guinea and Southern India respectively, but 
they are not of the quality of M. fragans and are used as adulterants in 
commercial ground nutmeg.  During the second half of the 16th Century, the 
English controlled much of the nutmeg trade, but lost control of the islands 
in the mid-17th Century to the Dutch.  The  English expanded cultivation of 
nutmegs to India and Grenada after seizing the largest of the Banda Islands 
early in the 19th Century.

Clove trees are native to the North Moluccas and at the time of the Dutch 
colonization were grown commercially on Ternate, Tidore, Bacan and western 
Halmahera.

Bear