greenish-yellow flowers, 5-parted, spreadintr, and 

 14 inch across, are borne on short stalks. There 

 are 5 minute sepals, 5 whitish or yellow spreading 

 petals i/s ill'"!"' long, 10 stamens inside a short tube 

 i/s inch long, and i)isti] on a disk and composed of 

 a 5-celled ovary, style, and flattened stigma. 



The fruits are borne on long stalks, and the 

 large 5-angled axis remains attached. The light 

 brown seeds are about 2-214 inches long and V2 

 inch broad, approximately 3,200 to a pound. 

 Flowers are borne mainly from March to July 

 in Puerto Rico, and mature fruits are present 

 chiefly in the winter. 



The sapwood is whitish or yellowish. The 

 heartwood is reddish, pinkish, or yellowish when 

 freshly cut, gradually turning dark rich reddish 

 brown. The wood "is moderately hard, heavy 

 (specific gravity 0.7-0.8), and strong. It is very 

 resistant to decay and to attack by dry- wood ter- 

 mites. 



The wood is used chiefly for furniture, cabinet- 

 making, interior finish, and veneers, being easily 

 worked and taking a beautiful polish. It formerly 

 was employed in shipbuilding, construction, and 

 for beams.' Roots and stumps of large trees are 

 especially prized for their irregular wavy grain. 

 Considered superior in quality and durability to 

 the wood of Honduras mahogany. The astringent 

 bitter bark has been used in medicine. 



Planted as a street and shade tree because of the 

 attractive spherical crown and dense shade. Often 

 grown in southern Florida where also native. Re- 

 ported to be a honey plant. 



The oldest surviving use of mahogany by Euro- 

 pean colonists is said to be in the cathedral at 

 Santo Domingo (Ciudad Trujillo), Dominican 

 Republic, completed in 1550. It contains much 

 carved mahogany woodwork still in fine condition 

 after more than four centuries in (he tropics and 

 a rough-hewn mahogany cross bearing the date 

 1514, the year construction was begun. The Do- 

 minican Re]3ublic has selected the mahogany 

 flower for its national emblem. 



West Indies mahogany was introduced into 

 Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands more than 200 

 years ago. Fine old trees recently cut near Gua- 

 yama on the south coast of Puerto Rico ranged 

 up to 52 inches in trunk diameter, one near Ponce 

 measured 50 inches, and some in St. Croix are 

 more than 50 inches. A number of small plantings 

 were made by Dr. Agustin Stahl near Aguadilla, 

 Toa Alta, and Manati about 50 years ago. More 

 extensive forest plantations have been established 

 on both public and private lands within the past 

 25 years. This species has proven better adapted 

 to dry rocky sites than Honduras mahogany. 

 Trees 20 years old near San Gennan averaged 5 

 inches in diameter and 35 feet in height. The 

 alnmdance of young trees developing beneath and 

 near the plantations may be partly responsible for 

 the popular misconception that the tree is native. 

 Planted also in Mona, St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. 

 John, and Tortola. 



Public forests. — Cambalache, Guajataca, Gua- 

 nica, Luquillo, Maricao, Rio Abajo, Susiia. 



RAXGE.-Xative in southern Florida including 

 Florida Keys, Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and His- 

 paniola. Introduced in Puerto Rico and Virgin 

 Islands, Bermuda, throughout Lesser Antilles, 

 Trinidad and Tobago, and Curagao, south to 

 South America and elsewhere in tropical regions, 

 and naturalized locally. 



Othee common names. — caoba, caoba de Santo 

 Domingo (Puerto Rico, Spanish) ; small-leaf ma- 

 hogany, mahogany (Virgin Islands) ; caobilla 

 (Cuba); West Indies mahogany, West Indian 

 mahogany, mahogany (United States, English, 

 commerce); madiera (Bahamas); Spanish ma- 

 hogany ( St. Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago) ; 

 acajou (Haiti) ; mahogany petites feuilles 

 (Guadeloupe, Martinique) ; mahogany, mahogany 

 du pays, acajou de Saint Domingue (Guade- 

 loupe) ; mahok (Dutch West Indies) ; mahoni 

 (Surinam). 



MAHOGANY FAMILY (MELIACEAE) 



113. Tinacio, broomstick 



A small tree or shrub of dry areas character- 

 ized by: (1) a rounded crown of dense foliage; 

 (2) alternate ]iinnate leaves with 7-21 lance- 

 shaped to elliptic leaflets slightly oblique at base 

 with sunken veins above; (3) several to many 

 small greenish-white or pale yellow, 5-parted 

 flowers about 3/j,. inch long and broad in branching 

 clusters at leaf bases; and (4) rounded greenish- 

 brown seed capsules %-i/2 inch in diameter, finely 

 hairy, splitting widely into 3 parts and exposing 

 usually 3 orange-red seeds. 



Deciduous, 15-20 feet high with trunk 4-6 inches 

 in diameter, elsewhere a tree to 50 feet in height. 



Trichilia hirta L. 



The brown or gray bark is rough, fissured and 

 scaly or furrowed, and the whitish inner bark is 

 bitter. The twigs are green and finely hairy when 

 young, becoming brownish. 



Leaves are 6-12 inches or more in length, the 

 slender round green axis bearing leaflets on short 

 lateral stalks yi6-'4 i'lch long. Leaflet blades are 

 I-414 inches long and V^-'^V-i inches wide, bluntly 

 long- or short-pointed at apex, the side toward 

 apex of axis broader at the rounded or short- 

 pointed base, not toothed at edges, thin, above 

 slightly shiny green to dark green, aiid beneath 

 paler and often slightly hairy. 



252 



