THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 85 



Mahogany. — When we speak of a certain wood as ma- 

 hogany we doubtless have a very definite idea of wdiat ma- 

 hogany is, but when we investigate the subject w^e find the 

 name appHed to so many different woods that certainty gives 

 place to uncertainty. What lumbermen and foresters generally 

 call mahogany is known to botanists as Sicicfeiiia fimhogoni. 

 It belongs to the Meliaceae of which the China-berry tree of 

 our southern States is also a member, 'ilie generic name was 

 given in honor of a Holland doctor named Swieten. and the 

 specific name is an adoption of the Indian name for the tree. 

 So much for the true mohagany. Of the others, according to 

 a writer in Forest and Irrigation, the African mahogany is 

 Kiiaya Senegalensis and the Indian mahogany is Soymida 

 febrifuga. The sw-eet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is cv:- 

 cassionally called mountain mahogany, the catalpa (Catalpa 

 speciosa) is known in tlie furniture trade as white mahogan)', 

 one of the Australian gums (Eucalyptus resiiiifcra) is called 

 red mahogany and the red bay (Persia borbonia) is the 

 Florida mahogany. The cofTee tree {Gyinnocladus cana- 

 densis) and the western sumac {Rhus integrifolia) are also 

 called mahoganies and several other trees no better fitted than 

 they, possess this title. 



Japanese Nomenclature. — When it comes to a particu- 

 larly fine and complex job of naming things the inhabitants of 

 the land of cherry blossoms are not a bit behind their antipodes 

 in dexterity. In the Japanese Botanical Magazine for July, we 

 find the name of an early flovv'ered form of their beloved 

 cherry tree given as follows : Prnnus psendo-cerasus Lindl. 

 sub-species /a /«^^a A" nra (Sieb.) Makino variety ^/a&ra Makino 

 forma praecox Makino; or, if we leave out the five "authori- 

 ties" which have become entangled in the combination we have 

 as the name Prunus psendo-cerasus Jamaskura glabra praecox, 

 which is still plenty long enough for the designation of 



