176 THALAMI FLORAE. 



glabrous, with the branches dichotomous, and at the base mi- 

 nutely bracteated. Flowers small, and greenish yellow. 

 Calyx minute, 5-lobed, with the lobes rounded, minutely ero- 

 ded. Petals oblongo-ovate, coriaceous. Tube of the stamens 

 cylindrical, shorter than the petals, 10-toothed at the apex, in- 

 ternally a little below the apex bearing the anthers, which are 

 small, ovato-rotund, yellow, alternating with the teeth of the 

 tube. Disk encircling the base of the ovary, amber-coloured, 

 short, denticulate. Ovary ovate, green: style cylindrical: 

 stigma peltate. Capsule egg-shaped, size of an orange, rufous 

 brown, minutely tuberculated, 5-celled, opening with 5 valves 

 from the base, covered within with a distinct coriaceous plate. 

 Receptacle central, large, 5-agonal, with the angles prominent, 

 opposite, and meeting up with the edges of the valves, so as to 

 form the septa of the cells : seeds attached to the apex of the 

 receptacle, 15 in each cell, some of the outer and upper ones 

 abortive, compressed, truncated at the base, expanded at the 

 apex into a rnembranaceous oblong wing : albumen white, thin : 

 radicle small. 



The Mahogany delights in a light stony or marly soil, and 

 is a common tree in our plains and lower hills. I have never 

 met with it at an elevation above 3000 feet, nor very close to 

 the sea-shore. It is at present much more scarce than it 

 appears to have formerly been. It was from this Island that 

 the supply for Europe was in former times principally obtained, 

 and the Old Jamaica Mahogany is still considered superior to 

 any that can now be procured from any other country. In 

 1753, according to Dr Browne, 521,300 feet in planks were 

 shipped from this Island. It was formerly so plentiful as to 

 be applied to the commonest purposes ; such as planks, boards, 

 shingles, &c. Now, however, although by no means scarce, we 

 employ inferior woods on such occasions. 



The beauty of the mahogany wood, is said to have been first 

 discovered by a carpenter on board of Sir Walter Raleigh's 

 vessel, at the time the ship was in harbour at Trinidad, in 

 1595. It is related that the first use to which mahogany was 

 applied in England, was to make a candle box. It was brought 

 into notice by Dr Gibbons, an eminent Physician in London, 

 about the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, 

 who had received some planks from his brother, who com- 

 manded a vessel in the West India trade. Since that, it has 

 been employed for every costly article of furniture, and occu- 

 pies a place in the drawing rooms and dining halls of royalty 

 itself, supplanting the oaken tables and pannelling of the olden 

 time. The most beautiful part of the wood is that obtained by 

 sawing across the bottom of the stem and root. No other 

 wood, not even the Yacca, can rival it in its infinitely diversified 

 shades, now waved, now dotted, and now clouded ; more varied 

 than even the tortoise shell, to which it bears some resem- 



