SILVA OF NOHTII AMERICA. 



MELIACE^. 



101 



Sio,etema Mahagoni grows in Florida on Key Largo and on EUiott's Kpv Wf ^ . , 



The .ood of S^ieterua Makagoni, the mahogany of commerce/ is heavy, exceedingly hard and 

 stron, close-gra.ned and very durable. It contains nnmerous obscure mednUa^^ rays, and pole seT 

 nch red-brown color wh.h becomes darker with age and exposure. The yellow sapwood consfst in th 

 Flonda trees of about twenty layers of annual growth, and is not more than an inch tS t1 

 specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood grown in Florida is 79S9 . I,' f / 7 , , 

 ..ghing 45 38 p.,nds. Mahogan^y is probtbly the mit ^e^roS itl^lltLS Cl 

 IS also largely used m the interior finish of buildin-s and railro.d o.r.- f i .7'""'™^' ^"^ 



sh. a d boat buiHing, for which purpose it was ^r^^X^rbyti:!^^^^ 

 and lightness and its power to resist decay.^ ^^tren^tn 



T'^; J"'^ "{ '^»-'»- ^^«'-?«« - Ktter and astringent, and although not admitted into the 

 Matena Medica, is sometimes used wdth quinine in the treatment of intermittent fevers ' 



The Mahogany-tree did not attract the attention of early European travelers in America. They 

 were seehing spices and plants possessed of medicinal virtues, and had Httle interest in trees principal y 

 valuable for their timber. Sloane, who carefidly explored the forests of Jamaica, overlooked SweS 

 entirely, and I was Mark Catesby who, having discovered it in the Bahama Islands, first describ Ih 

 tree in his iV^:<.„™^ Il.tory of Carolina, published in 1734» The earliest mentio; of the Mahogany- 

 tree as an inhabitant of Honda appeared in Wilham Stork's Description of EaM Florida » ° 



Swutenia Mahagoni^ was probably first sent to Europe by Catesby. It was cidtivated in the Chelsea 

 Physic Garden near London in 1739," and was planted in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta in 1795 " 



1 It is probable that the Mahogany-tree was once more common 

 on the riorida keys than it ia at present, as thirty or forty years 

 ago, or even earlier, considerable quantities of the wood were cut 

 and sent to the Bahama Islands for export to Europe, and all the 

 large trees were destroyed. 



2 Euiz, in Herl. Berol.Jide C. de Candolle, I. c. 



3 The wood of other trees sometimes appears in commerce under 

 the name of mahogany, although very inferior to that of Swietenia. 

 Madeira mahogany is the wood of Persea Indica, Sprg. Khaya 

 Senegalensis, A. Juss., a large tree of west-tropical Africa, supplies 

 the so-called African mahogany, and Soymida fehrifuga, A. Juss., 

 the Indian wood sold in England as mahogany. The Bastard ma- 

 hogany of the West Indies is the wood of Cedrella odorata, L. 



* The Mahogany-tree grows rapidly under favorable conditions 

 m Central America, sometimes attaining in two hundred years a 

 trunk diameter of four feet. In Florida it grows much more 

 slowly. The two Florida logs in the Jesup collection of North 

 American woods in the American Museum of Natural History in 

 New York measure respectively twenty-two and a half and eigh- ' 

 teen and a quarter inches in diameter ; the first has. two hundred 

 and four layers of annual growth, and the second two hundred and 

 fourteen, 



^ Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de VAme'rique, v. 192 ; vi. 304 

 (1772). — Givelt, EncydopcEdia of Architecture, 301. — M'CulIough, 

 Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical and Historical, of Commerce and 

 Commercial Navigation. — Honori Havard, Dictionnaire de VameuUe- 

 ment et de decoration, 1. 



^ Laslett, Timber and Timber Trees, 170. 



Several grades of mahogany are recognized by timber merchants. 

 They are distinguished by the weight, the character of the grain, 

 and the color of the wood, which are affected by tfic soil and situa- 

 tion in which the trees have grown. Trees in high rocky situations 



on mountain slopes, especially on limestone soil, produce the most 

 valuable wood, while the poorer qualities come from trees grown in 

 the forests which border the rivers near the coast of Central Amer- 

 ica. The finest mahogany came originally from San Domingo, 

 Cuba, and Jamaica, where the supply is now practically exhausted. 

 The best now grows ou the lower slopes of the mountains of south- 

 ern Mexico, British Honduras, and Guatemala. 



The methods employed in cutting the JIahogany-tree and in get- 

 ting the logs to the coast are described in the article on Swietenia 

 Mahagoni in Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, i. 21. Descriptions of 

 the tree and of the modes of cutting it will also be found in Wells' 

 Explorations and Adventures in Honduras, 340, in Morris's Colony of 

 British Honduras, and in Brigham's Guatemala, the land of the 

 Quetzal, 



^ Woodvillc, Med. Bol. ed. 3, iii. G20, t. 220. — U. S. Bispens. ed. 

 14, 1768. — Guibourt, Hist. Drag. ed. 7, iii. 595. 



8 Arbor foliis pinnatis, Alam claudenle, nulla impari: nervo ad 

 latus unum excurrente, etc., ii. 81, t. 81. 



Cedrela foliis pinnatis, foribus sparsis, ligno graviori, Browne, 

 Nat. Hist. Jam. 158. 



^ " Mahogany grows only in the southern and interior parts of the 

 peninsula ; it is in size and quality inferior to the Jamaica, but good 

 enough to become an article of trade. The woodcutters from the 

 province come to east Florida to cut Mahogany and carry it ofp 

 clandestinely." The first edition of this book is not dated. The 

 third edition, which appeared probably only a few years later, was 

 published in 17G9, 



10 Alton, Hort. Kew. ii. 59. 



" The trees in Calcutta had attained a large size in 1864, when 

 they were blown down by the hurricane which devastated the gar- 

 den. In 1865 efforts were made to introduce the Mahogany-tree 

 into India on a large scale. They were only partially successful, 



