150 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



beautiful variety of colour which now renders it 

 superior to all other timber for cabinet-work; but it 

 was more durable, and took a higher polish with less 

 labour. Of course it was wholly unknown to the 

 ancients. It was first introduced in the sixteenth 

 century, but it was not generally used in England 

 till the eighteenth. 



The mahogany is a graceful tree, with many 

 branches that form a very handsome head. The 

 leafets are in pairs, mostly four, and sometimes 

 three, but very rarely five; the pair opposite, and 

 without any odd leafet at the point; they are smooth 

 and shining, lance-shaped, entire at the edges like 

 those of the laurel, and bent back; each leafet is 

 about two inches and a half long, and the whole 

 leaf is about eight inches. The flowers are small 

 and whitish, and the seed-vessel has some resem- 

 blance to that of the Barbadoes cedar: hence some 

 botanists have given the name of cedar to the tree. 



This tree so far corresponds with the pine tribe, 

 that the timber is best upon the coldest soils and 

 in the most exposed situations. When it grows 

 upon moist soils and warm lands, it is soft, coarse, 

 spongy, and contains sap-wood, into which some 

 worms will eat. That which is most accessible at 

 Honduras is of this description; and therefore it is 

 only used for coarser works, or for a ground on 

 which to lay veneers of the choicer sorts. For the 

 latter purpose it is well adapted, as it holds glue 

 better than deal, and, when properly seasoned, is not so 

 apt to warp or to be eaten by insects. When it grows 

 in favourable situations, where it has room to spread, 

 it is of much better quality and puts out large 

 branches, the junctions of which with the stem fur- 

 nish those beautifully curled pieces of which the 

 choicest veneers are made. When among rocks and 

 much exposed, the size is inferior, and there is not 



