HARDWOOD RECORD 



Some Important Foreign Woods, 



Mahogany. 

 Mahogany is a -word which we are all 

 familiar with; we know it as the name of 

 the chief or principal cabinet wood of the 

 world, and yet the vast majority of the 

 people of the north temperate zone know lit- 

 tle or nothing of its appearance in the 

 forests, the nature of its growth or any of 

 its principal characteristics. Therefore, I 

 shall endeavor to give in this brief article a 

 few facts concerning it from my own ob- 

 servations in its native haunts in the tropic 

 and semi-tropical woods. 



One of the accompanying illustrations rep- 

 resents the fruit of the mahogany tree. The 

 nut is usually from four to five inches long 

 lud two or two and a half inches thick, and 

 IS four-valved, but the number of these sec- 

 tions of both its outer and inner hulls vary 

 from three to five. It resembles in some re- 

 spects the moekernut, a western species of 

 hickory, and when full grown has a reddish, 

 velvety cast, and before being opened looks 

 :is if it ought to possess some kind of an 

 edible kernel, but in this respect it is de- 

 ceiving, for in reality it is the reverse of 

 this, as it certainly possesses no good quali- 

 ties except ability to propagate its kind. It 

 is termed a pericarp or capsule, and the lat- 

 ter is certainly an appropriate name, as it 

 means an envelope or small receptacle for 

 bitter or nauseating doses. So it is with tho 

 mahogany nut, as it contains a white powder 

 which is, if anything, more bitter and dis- 

 tasteful than quinine. This powder or 

 whitish dust is found between the folds and 

 in the minute cavities of the closely packed 

 bundle of winged seeds snugly pressed in the 

 interior of the nut. When it ripens the hull 

 bursts and the sections separate and spread 

 outward at the points arfd form an opening 

 through which these winged seeds are ex- 

 posed and come in contact with the wind, 

 which works them loose from their delicate 

 fastenings, and they go fluttering away from 

 the lofty branches of the tops of the great 

 mahoganies, which tower high above the 

 dense growth of the tropical bush and even 

 above the other trees of the surrounding 

 forest. These winged seeds when released 

 from the nut are about three inches long and 

 quite similar to the samaras of the soft 

 maple, or gauzy and silky in appearance like 

 the wing of an insect. 



The leaf of the mahogany is very similar 

 to that of the black walnut, being compound 

 in form. The leaflets are from three to four 

 inches long with serrate edges and from six 

 to ten in number. They are attached to the 

 midrib or main stem at regular spaces along 

 the opposite sides, not opposite to each 

 other, but in staggered position along the 

 rib. Mahogany attains a wonderful growth 

 in its natural habitat. Its great sweeping 

 crown is lifted liigh above the surroundings 



AKTICLE I. 



and is supported on a stiaig^it gigantic 

 trunk of fine proportions. 



The area of the growth of mahogany is 

 worldwide; it is scattered throughout the 

 tropical zone. However, it never grows in 

 stands entirely of its kind or even in groups, 

 but the individual trees stand singly here 

 and there all over the wooded slopes of the 

 mighty mountains. They seem like proud 

 sentinels stationed in advantageous posi- 

 tions to keep vigilant watch over the vast 

 solitudes of the jungle. 



Mahogany, like most all other varieties 

 of timber, when grown out in the open and 

 thus removed from the stimulating in- 



IG. 1. FRUIT OF THE MAIIOG.^NY TREE. 



fluence of surrounding trees, does not at- 

 tain a great height or develop the magnifi- 

 cent trunk which gives it such superiority 

 as a lumber tree. Under domestic condi- 

 tions it becomes somewhat dwarfed in 

 stature; but while civilization seems some- 

 what adverse to its development as to size, 

 it enhances its beauty, and it takes upon 

 itself the looks and dignified airs of an 

 ornamental tree. To these new conditions 

 it seems capable of adapting itself with 

 great success, and by reason of its beauti- 

 ful clusters of small white flowers, its large 

 red fruit so attractive among the light green 

 leaves, tho spraylike form of its foliage and 



its general appearance, it is truly orna- 

 mental. 



In the city of Belize, British Honduras, 

 and other towns in Central America it is 

 not uncommon to see mahogany planted, or 

 even natural growth, along the streets, in 

 parks and in grounds surrounding many 

 beautiful homes. 



The methods of cutting timber at most 

 mahogany camps is extravagant and waste- 

 ful in the extreme and in many cases very 

 carelessly carried on. The native laborers 

 take no more thought of economy or care in 

 felling the costly mahogany than we would 

 in cutting the cheapest varieties of timber 

 in this country. In order to get the trees 

 down with the expenditure of the least pos- 

 sible amount of muscular efl'ort and the 

 minimum of labor, they waste the timber on 

 every hand. They sacrifice a very large 

 per cent of the most valuable wood by lack 

 of judgment and their unskilled way of 

 slashing and butchering it, and also by 

 their inclination to take only that which is 

 easiest to get. The high stump represented 

 in Fig. 2 illustrates this quite clearly, show- 

 ing the mass of bristling splinters that have 

 been drawn from the butt and choicest log 

 by shattering in falling. This stump, being 

 unusually large, represents a waste of about 

 9,000 feet of inch board, which is far above 

 the average, but the proportion is about 

 the same in smaller trees. The butt I mu' 

 usually is the most highly figured ;ui I. 

 therefore, the most valuable part of any 

 tree, and this is especially true of ma- 

 hogany. Several feet from the ground the 

 trunk begins to broaden out into huge but- 

 tresses which are similar to cypress, n 

 withstanding the fact that it invari:;! 

 grows on dry ground, while the cypro-> 

 inclined to that which is wet. 



The mahogany reaches its greatest <!' 

 velopment on the high, dry mountain s1o|m 

 while the cypress flourishes in low, swan 

 regions. These mahoganj' spurs spreail 

 and form massive spines or triangular bra 

 that go into the ground and disappear fully 

 eight feet from a line perpendicular with 

 the body of the tree. These spurs are thin 

 in comparison to their surface, usually not 

 over five or six inches thick, according to 

 their lateral measurement. The recesses 

 between them are so large that several men 

 could be concealed therein or find shelter 

 during a tropical storm. 



One of the native methods of cutting 

 down mahogany is to hack notches in the 

 top edges of these spines, as represented in 

 Fig. .3, in which they place poles crossways 

 and thus erect a temporary scaffold, which 

 rests on the spurs in such a way that they 

 can stand upon it, and with tho use of a 

 I)unchcon, or footboard, they get clear 

 above the swell, and thus avoid tho labor of 



