rence aN REE 
ERR eo 
swieTenrA ManAcONI, ORD. XXXVIII. Trihifaie. 69h 
A VERY large tree, which, by sending off numerous spreading 
branches, makes a beautiful appearance. Wood hard, compact, of a 
brownish red, and from its general use well known in England. 
The bark is rough, scaly, and brown, but upon the young branches 
grey, and muchsmoother. Leaves pinnated, alternate, consisting 
of three, four, or five pairs of pinnule, which are entire, ovately 
lance-shaped, acute, oblique, reclining, on short footstalks. Flowers 
numerous, small, whitish, in axillary open spikes. Calyx small, 
bell-shaped, deciduous, cut into five segments. Petals five, in- 
versely ovate, concave, obtuse, spreading.  Nectarium mono- 
phyllous, cylindrical, erect, of the length of the corolla, divided at 
the brim into ten pointed teeth. Filaments ten, scarcely visible, 
inserted beneath the teeth of the nectarium. Antherz oblong, 
erect. Germen ovate. Style tapering, erect, of the length of the 
nectarium.. Stigma large, depressed at the top.- Capsule ovate, 
large, obtuse, five-celled, five-valved ; valves woody, thick, cpening 
at the base. Seeds numerous, compressed, imbricated, furnished 
with oblong membranous wings. Receptacle of the seed large, 
oblong, obtuse, pentagonal. 
It is a native of the West Indies, and was fitst cultivated in 
England in 1739 by Mr. P. Miller, who then considered it as a 
species of Cedrus; but Jacquin discovered the Mahogany to be a 
distinct genus, and called it Swietenia, in honour of Gerard L. B. 
a Swieten, whose influence with the HESS of Austria , caused the 
botanic garden at Vienna -te-be founded: — 
For the botanical specimen of the tree figured m the annexed 
plate, we are obliged to Sir Joseph Banks. 
The bark of the Swietenia has lately been found, in a con- 
siderable degree, to emulate that of the cinchona in its medicinal 
characters; we have therefore followed the late professor Murray 
in considering it as an article of the Materia Medica. 
This. bark, according to Dr. Wright; is “ rough, acaig. and 
brown,” as found upon the trunk of a tree, but “ that on the 
No. 49.—vot. 4. 730 
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