204 



Cub 



to be conmion on the plains and lower hills up to 3000 it.). 



(H 



St, Tliomas> 



St. Croix, Martinique, St. Vincent, and Trinidad, though 

 according to Cruegcr it is not indigenous in the latter island, 

 De Candolle adds "Peru, near Pazuzo, Ruiz in h. Berol.", but 

 this requires confirmation. The other localities, Mexico and 

 Honduras, mentioned in various works, belong to the two 

 following species. 



2. Svvietenia humilis, Zucc, was described and figured 

 somewhere between 1831 and 1836 (Abh. Akad. Muench. li. p. 

 355, tt. 7 A, TB), being based on materials collected by Karwinski 

 in dry regions at 1000 ft. elevation near Tehuantepec, on the 

 coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is described as a medium-sized 

 tree, some 20 to 30 ft. high, with a trunk scarcely two feet in 

 diameter, and the wood hard as in Mahogany. It was said 

 to flower in February and to mature its fruits in the same month 

 a year later. This species is characterised by its moderate-sized, 

 very acuminate leaflets and by the very distinctly umbonate 

 fruits. There are specimens at Kew from Taretan, in the 

 Province of Oaxaca, collected by Prof. A, Duges, in 1883, bear- 

 ing the native name "Cobano"; from Tuxtla, in the province 

 of Chiapas, collected by Ed. Seler, and from Kealejo (or Corinto), 

 N.W. Nicaragua, collected by Dr. Sinclair. The latter is labelled 

 " Mahogany Tree," and is cited by Hemsley under S. Mahagoni, 

 Jacq. It would be interesting to ascertain whether this is the 

 source of what is known as Nicaragua Mahogany. All these 

 localities are on the Pacific Coast, as is also Acapulco, where 

 Humboldt and Bonpland collected a Mahogany that is suspected 

 to belong to this species (Ivunth, Syn. PL ^Equinoct. iii. p. 219). 

 This and the Nicaraguan plant are cited by Hemsley under 

 S. Mahagoni (Biol. Centr. Ainer. i. p. 183). Another figure is 



Schnitzl. Ic. Fam. Nat. iii. t. 226, fig. 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 18, 21, 22. 



De Candolle cites as a synonym of this species Swietenia 

 multijuga, Schiede (Linnaea, iv. p. 578), but this is a species 

 of Cedrela. It was afterwards called Cedrela odorata, L.? 

 (Schlecht. & Cham, in Linnaea, vL p. 422), and later (as it is 

 different from C. odorata, L.) G. mexicana, Poem. (Syn. Monogr. 

 Hesperid. p. 47). There is a fruiting specimen of S. multijuga 

 in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, the leaves 

 having eight pairs of alternate, very acuminate leaflets, and 

 the fruits and seeds are wholly typical of the genus Cedrela. 

 Of this Schiede remarked : " It is abundant at Papautla, Estero, 

 and probably in the whole region, and is known by the name of 

 Cedro. The wood of this tree is a browish colour, is easy to 

 work and supplies the place of the Pines in the tract of coast. 

 It must not be confounded with the Cedro of the Tierra fria, 

 which is Taxodium distichmn ." The locality, it will be noted, 

 is on the Atlantic coast of Mexico. 



He also mentions a similar hard wood, called Caoba, perhaps 

 produced by -another species of the genus Swietenia, but he 

 did not know the tree which produced it, though it was said 



* 



