I 9 o8 THE XA.MKS OF MAHOGANY [97 



The name mahogany is a magic Two specie.-. i eucalypti!- are smne- 



wortl. It stands for excellence, so times called "white mahogany," ah 



that if a dealer can affix it to a pile of \Ve-t Indian ti . bifitr- 



lumber he can drive a better bargain cata). There is a wood M>mctr 



with an ignorant buyer. And this in called "horsetlesh mahogany," or 



spite of the fact that ordinary mahog- horseflesh or sabicu. 

 any is not an expensive wood. The And SQ on _ in the t American 



price of mahogany vanes from eight t ics therc [s a t ,'- , tnt . M| 

 to twelve cents per foot in the log in (1 {i> the forest itsdf Thefe 



the New York market. I know ot s ish> Eng i ish Portugtu^. French, 



one instance in which a dealer sold Dutch and Danjsh cokinj ^ m t , K . 



some bisted, or sweet gum, under the American t ics These havc al , 



name of mountain mahogany.; The tried to interpret the Induin names of 



buyer was well pleased, thinking his many lant or have invented new 



house was finished m J*J, are and b ^ u ~ names. There are many Indian tribes, 



htul wood. In the Philippines there and therefore m Indian tree names 



is a wood called the red cedar or toon. Add tQ this the n who js famQUS 



It produces a wood something like for corrupting names> and lhe Jap . 



mahogany, and is sometimes called anes e, Chinese, and Hindus, who have 



-Indian mahogany In a store in brought their languages into the mix- 

 Washington, D. C., I saw furniture la- and it u tQ undcrstand how 



beled toon mahogany. It was a thg common name of a trce is of use 



wood quite as beautiful and even more only m a very restricted area The 



valuable than some mahogany. The negroes of Du { ch Guiana, for instance, 



use of the word mahogany m its name spea] . Taki . Takii which is a combina- 

 tion of English. Dutch, Spanish. Por- 



The term "mahogany" is applied to tuguese, French. African, and what- 



woods which resemble it so faintly not. One hopes, therefore, that some 



that it is hard to imagine how and day an official international congre- 



when they were named. The Ken- may be formed to settle one scientific 



tucky coffee tree (Gymnocladns dio- name and one common name on at 



icns) is called mahogany in New York least all the important commercial 



and Pennsylvania. Rhus integrifolia, plants of the world, 

 the western sumac is called mahog- In the t order Meliaceae, to 



any. The red bay (Persia borboma which the mahogany belonvrs. there are 



is often called Florida mahogany. several a and manv yidd . 



while the true mahogany which is i ng some of the most valuable and best 



common in the southernmost part of known woods of comnK . IVc , while 

 the State of Florida is known as Ma- ,,, ; . ,. , th ,, rs yet to hc tried and de . 

 deira or redwood. veloped. There is the famous cigar- 

 In Australia there is a species of box cedar (Ccdrcla odonifiit, logs of 

 eucalyptus (E. rcsinifera) called "red which are usually worth more than ma- 

 mahogany," and the term "mahogany hogany ; there the <|uaramni<> 

 gum" is sometimes applied to the fa- (Guarea tricliilit'idcs \<. ") of Pi> 

 mous jarrah (E. marginata). It seems Rico; there is the acajou wo<" 

 most incongruous to combine the drcla fissilcs or brasilensis) \ :th 

 words mahogany and gum, since these America : and many <>th< 

 timbers are usually the opposite in dar t\ The term "cedar" is here 

 character, although jarrah may pos- used merely to indicate that the wood 

 sess some qualities of both, and thus is light and" often has a cedary aroma. 

 warrant this apparent misnomer. The trees in aivMiabit of 

 Nothing is more characteristic of ma- growth look like walnuts. The term 

 hogany than its color; yet there are (.V</>v/</ applied to this genus is a corn- 

 woods known as "white mahogany." bination of two Greek wnls. one 



