290 BLAKE: REVISION OF MAHOGANIES 



is derived from other trees than Swietenia. Of the true mahog- 

 anies, belonging to the genus vSwietenia, 5. macrophylla is prob- 

 ably the one of most importance at the present time. This species 

 grows on the Atlantic coast of Central America from Tabasco 

 to Honduras and for an undetermined distance southward, 

 and is shipped from Belize, Puerto Barrios, and various other 

 points. 5. mahagoni, of much importance in early days, is 

 probably now marketed in less quantity than 5. macrophylla. 

 The species of western Mexico, 5. cirrhata and 5. humilis, are 

 at present little utilized, and the same is true of the Venezuelan 

 species, 5. candollei. 



Swietenia Jacq. Enum. PI. Carib. 4. 1760. 



Mahagoni Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 343. 1763. 



"Roia Scop. Introd. 226. 1777." 



Suitenia Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. 2: 436, 479. 181 2. 



Trees with hard and heavy red wood, glabrous throughout except 

 for the sometimes ciliolate calyx and corolla; leaves alternate, abruptly 

 pinnate, or sometimes odd-pinnate, the leaflets 2 to 6 pairs, opposite 

 or subopposite, elliptic to oval, strongly inequilateral, subsessile or 

 petiolulate; panicles axillary, pedunculate, many-flowered, the flowers 

 whitish or greenish yellow, short-pedicellate; calyx (4 or) 5-lobed for 

 one-third to one-half its length, the lobes semicircular or deltoid, 

 broadly rounded to barely acutish ; corolla imbricate in bud, the petals 

 (4 or) 5, oblong-oval or obovate-oval ; staminal tube (8 to) lo-toothed 

 at apex, the teeth triangular, acute; anthers borne inside the tube at its 

 apex, alternating with the teeth, subsessile, oval-oblong, obtuse; disk 

 crenulate, about half as long as ovary or less; ovary (4 or) 5-celled, 

 the cells bearing about 12 ovules in two rows of 6 or 7 each; style col- 

 umnar, about as long as ovary or slightly longer ; stigma discoid, thick- 

 ened, crenulate, about as broad as ovar>'; capsule ovoid, rounded or 

 umbonate at apex, septicidally dehiscing from the base or apex, with 

 thick woody exocarp and much thinner leathery endocarp, the valves 

 and seeds eventually deciduous leaving the persistent pentagonal 

 narrowly 5-winged receptacle; seeds imbricate, about 12 in each cell, 

 with more or less quadrangular body and much longer slightly broader 

 wing thickened on the chalazal margin ; embryo transverse, with broad, 

 flat, oily cotyledons and minute radicle, and scanty albumen. 



