Mahogany 



595 



the base. The leaflets are leathery, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3 to 8 cm. long, 

 taper-pointed, very unequal-sided, entire on the margin; they are shining dark 

 green and smooth above, paler and smooth or with some brownish hairs beneath. 

 The flowers, appearing in early summer in Florida, are perfect, in axillary open 

 panicles 6 to 15 cm. long. The calyx is small, cup-shaped, its 5 teeth broadly 

 rounded, about i mm. long; the disk is annular; the corolla is white, 8 to 9 mm. 

 across, the petals spreading, oblong to obovate and blunt or notched ; the stamens 

 are united into a smooth tube with 10 teeth above, the 10 anthers attached on the 

 back at the sinusus and opening lengthwise; the ovary is ovoid, 5-celled; style 

 erect; stigma disk-hke and 5-rayed; ovules many in each cell. The fruit is a 

 5-celled capsule splitting from the base into 5 thick valves, the 5-winged axis 



Fig. 548. Mahogany. 



persistent; it is ovoid, 6 to 12 cm. long, brown and rough; the flat seeds are 18 

 mm. long, the broad thin wing ovate, blunt, thick, wrinkled and brown. 



The wood is very hard and strong, close-grained, red, darkening with age; its 

 specific gravity is about 0.73. It is very durable and of the highest value in cabi- 

 net work and interior finishing and is cultivated in the East Indies for its valuable 

 timber. 



The genus is a small tropical one of probably not over 3 species, 2 American 

 and I African. The name is in commemoration of Gerard von Swieten (1700- 

 1772), a noted physician and botanist of Leyden and Vienna. Our tree is the type 

 of the genus. 



