1908 



THE NAMES OF MAHOGANY 



197 



The name mahogany is a magic 

 word. It stands for excellence, so 

 that if a dealer can affix it to a pile of 

 lumber he can drive a better bargain 

 with an ignorant buyer. And this in 

 spite of the fact that ordinary mahog- 

 any is not an expensive wood. The 

 price of mahogany varies from eight 

 to twelve cents per foot in the log in 

 the New York market. I know of 

 one instance in which a dealer sold 

 some bilsted, or sweet gum, under the 

 name of "mountain mahogany." The 

 buyer was well pleased, thinking his 

 house was finished in a rare and beau- 

 tiful wood. In the Philippines there 

 is a wood called the red cedar, or toon. 

 It produces a wood something like 

 mahogany, and is sometimes called 

 "Indian mahogany." In a store in 

 Washington, D. C, I saw furniture la- 

 beled "toon mahogany." It was a 

 wood quite as beautiful and even more 

 valuable than some mahogany. The 

 use of the word mahogany in its napie 

 helped to sell it. 



The term "mahogany" is applied to 

 woods which resemble it so faintly 

 that it is hard to imagine how and 

 when they were named. The Ken- 

 tucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dio- 

 iciis) is called mahogany in New York 

 and Pennsylvania. Rhus integrifolia, 

 the western sumac, is called mahog- 

 any. The red bay (Persia borbonia) 

 is often called "Florida mahogany," 

 while the true mahogany which is 

 common in the southernmost part of 

 the State of Florida is known as Ma- 

 deira or redwood. 



In Australia there is a species of 

 eucalyptus (B. resinifera) called "red 

 mahogany," and the term "mahogany 

 gum" is sometimes applied to the fa- 

 mous jarrah (E. marginata). It seems 

 most incongruous to combine the 

 words mahogany and gum, since these 

 timbers are usually the opposite in 

 character, although jarrah may pos- 

 sess some qualities of both, and thus 

 warrant this apparent misnomer. 

 Nothing is more characteristic of ma- 

 hogany than its color; yet there are 

 woods known as "white mahogany." 



Two species of eucalyptus are some- 

 times called "white mahogany," also a 

 West Indian tree (Antirrhoea biftir- 

 cata). There is a wood sometimes 

 called "horseflesh mahogany," or just 

 horseflesh or sabicu. 



And so on — in the great American 

 tropics there is a tangle of tree names 

 equal to the forest itself. There are 

 Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, 

 Dutch, and Danish colonies in the 

 American tropics. These have all 

 tried to interpret the Indian names of 

 many plants, or have invented new 

 names. There are many Indian tribes, 

 and therefore many Indian tree names. 

 Add to this the negro, who is famous 

 for corrupting names, and the Jap- 

 anese, Chinese, and Hindus, who have 

 brought their languages into the mix- 

 up, and it is easy to understand how 

 the common name of a tree is of use 

 only in a very restricted area. The 

 negroes of Dutch Guiana, for instance, 

 speak Taki-Taki, which is a combina- 

 tion of English. Dutch, Spanish, Por- 

 tuguese, French, African, and what- 

 not. One hopes, therefore, that some 

 day an official international congress 

 may be formed to settle one scientific 

 name and one common name on at 

 least all the important commercial 

 plants of the world. 



In the great order IMeliacese, to 

 which the mahogany belongs, there are 

 several genera and many species yield- 

 ing some of the most valuable and best 

 known woods of commerce, while 

 liv c : -e c thers yet to be tried and de- 

 veloped. There is the famous cigar- 

 box cedar (Cedrela odorata), logs of 

 which are usually worth more than ma- 

 hogany; there is the quaraguao 

 (Gtiarea trichilioides E- ) of Porto 

 Rico ; there is the acajou wood (Ce- 

 drela fissiles or brasilensis) of South 

 America ; and many others of the ce- 

 dar type. The term "cedar" is here 

 used merely to indicate that the wood 

 is light and often has a cedary aroma. 

 The trees in foliage and habit of 

 growth look like walnuts. The term 

 Cedrela applied to this genus is a com- 

 bination of two Greek words, one 



