MAHOGANY. 149 



became an object of curiosity and exhibition. The 

 wood was then taken into favour: Dr. Gibbons had 

 a bureau made of it, and the Duchess of Bucking- 

 ham another; and the despised mahogany now be- 

 came a prominent article of luxury, and at the same 

 time raised the fortunes of the cabinet-maker by whom 

 it had been at first so little regarded. 



Mahogany Swietenia mahagoni. 



The mahogany-tree is found in great quantities on 

 the low and woody lands, and even upon the rocks 

 in the countries on the western shores of the Carib- 

 bean J sea, about Honduras and Campeachy. It is 

 also abundant in the Islands of Cuba and Hayti, 

 and it used to be plentiful in Jamaica, where it 

 was of excellent quality; but most of the larger trees 

 have been cut down. It was formerly abundant 

 on the Bahamas, where it grew, on the rocks, 

 to a great height, and four feet in diameter. In the 

 earliest periods it was much used by the Spaniards 

 in ship-building. When first introduced by them it 

 was very dark and hard, and without much of that 



VOL. n. 13* 



