207 



* 



Mahogany 



asco 



but other Central 



American woods are known under the names of Costa Rica, 

 Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama Mahogany, the botanical 

 source of which is in doubt. Colombia Mahogany, though 

 shipped from Cartagena, is not a Swietenia, but the produce 

 of Cariniania piriformis, Miers, belonging to the family 

 ? Lecythidaceae. It is said to be cut in the former state of 



Bolivar, 100 to 200 miles inland, and shipped from Cartagena. 

 Veiy close to Swietenia macrophylla, if not a form of the same, 

 is a plant sent for determination bv Sir Norman Laniont, who 

 raised it from seeds of the second consignment obtained by the 

 Trinidad Department of Agriculture from Honduras, some- 

 where about 1905. It is said to be about equal in height to 

 undoubted S. macrophylla, planted at the same time, but is 

 rather more branching and the branches have a less pronounced 

 vertical habit. The leaves are rather smaller than in S. macro- 

 phylla, the inflorescence denser and the flowers rather smaller, 

 but the general resemblance is so close as to suggest that it is 

 only a varietal difference. The tree flowered profusely in 1918, 

 but only a single fruit set, which has, been sent to Kew, and 

 cannot be separated by any essential character. 



A tree with very similar leaflets is cultivated at Madras, a 

 barren specimen, labelled " S. macrophylla, G. King, intro- 

 duced, A. H. G., Madras, July, 1897," being preserved at 

 Kew. 



It would be interesting to identify the trees which produce 

 other Central American Mahoganies, for example, Costa Rica, 

 Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama Mahogany, and for this 

 flowering and fruiting specimens are desired. The term 

 Mahogany is now applied to the timber of so many trees that 

 nothing short of the actual materials will serve to identify them. 

 All the timbers named may not belong to Swietenia, but in any 

 case it is desirable that their botanical source should be ascer- 

 tained. 



X-— MISCELLANEOUS NOTES- 



E. H. Wilson. — We learn that Mr. E. H. Wilson has been 

 appointed Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica 

 Plain, Mass., U.S.A. 



g 



A set of about 600 water-colour 



drawings of Indian plants has recently been acquired for Kew. 

 They are evidently the work of several artists, some of them 

 native, others European, and appear to have been at one time 

 the property of Claude Martin, who was born at Lyons on 

 Jan. 4th, 1731, went to India in 1751 and, as an officer of the 

 English East India Company, served hi the Carnatic wars. In 

 1763 he obtained an ensign's commission in the Bengal Army, 

 in which at length he became Major-General, retiring on half- 

 pay in 1776, when he was allowed to accept the post of superin- 



