THE NAMES OF MAHOGANY 



BY 



Dr. John Gifford, Founder and Former Editor of this Magazine 



T"HE TERM "mahogany" is ap- 

 ■'• plied to several woods which 

 are in no way related to the 

 genuine article, and to several woods 

 which are closely akin to it and re- 

 semble it in many ways. 



The scientific name is Swietenia 

 mahagoni Jacq. The genus Swietenia 

 was named for a Holland doctor by 

 the name of Swieten, and the specific 

 name mahagoni is merely another 

 form of the common name mahogany, 

 which had its origin in the old Ameri- 

 can Indian name of the tree. The 

 French for mahogany is mahagoni, 

 and since the botanist who named it 

 was a Frenchman, this accounts for 

 the use of the letter a in the second 

 syllable of the specific name, instead 

 of o as in our English word mahog- 

 any. 



For the benefit of those not familiar 

 with botany it is proper to explain 

 that every known plant has an official 

 scientific name. Each plant has a 

 generic or family name, followed by a 

 specific or individual name. These 

 scientific names are often of interest 

 in themselves, in that they perpetuate 

 the common or local name, or the 

 name of some person directly or in- 

 directly associated with the plant, or in- 

 dicate a region in which it grows, 

 some striking feature in connection 

 with it, or even some error in refer- 

 ence to it. As an illustration of the 

 last, the term "fiddlewood" in the 

 English tropics is of interest. The 

 scientific generic name is Citharexy- 

 htin, a translation of fiddlewood. The 

 wood, however, is absolutely unfit for 

 violins, and has never been used for 

 that purpose. The term "fiddle" in 

 this case is merely a corruption of the 

 French fidele, meaning true or strong. 

 Khaya senegalensis is the name of 

 the African mahogany. Khaya is the 



common native African name of the 

 tree, and senegalensis means that it 

 comes from the region of the Senegal. 

 One of the Indian mahoganies is Soy- 

 mida febrifiiga, Soymida being a na- 

 tive name and febrifuga indicating 

 that the parts of the tree are useful in 

 combatting fever. 



With the foreign species of mahog- 

 any the writer is not familiar, al- 

 though the African mahogany is a 

 common wood of commerce. He 

 knows only of the genus Swietenia, 

 and of this genus only one species ma- 

 hagoni, although there may be other 

 species in tropical America. Our ma- 

 hogany varies considerably in charac- 

 ter in the various regions in which it 

 occurs, but these differences are prob- 

 ably due to the great variety of con- 

 ditions under which it grows and are 

 not sufficiently marked and fixed to 

 warrant the formation of a greater 

 number of species. The seed of the 

 Bahaman mahogany, if planted in the 

 lowlands of Honduras and Mexico, 

 would no doubt produce a tree indis- 

 tinguishable from that of its native 

 neighbors, and vice versa. There is 

 great variation in the quality of a 

 wood, due to its location. 



The tendency of botanists to name 

 new species on insufficient grounds is 

 unfortunate and unscientific, and 

 merely lumbers our vocabulary with a 

 lot of useless names, and renders more 

 confusing a subject already much con- 

 fused, it is almost impossible for the 

 practical man to keep track of these 

 changes in the obscure literature in 

 which they are often published. Even 

 then, if he knows of such changes he 

 is suspicious of the standing of the 

 author and the grounds on which 

 these changes are founded. A scien- 

 tific name is worse than useless, unless 

 it is universally accepted and used. 



