448 



HISTORY OF THK VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



When young, the liawtliom springs up very 

 rapidly; a shoot of a single year being sufficient 

 for a walking-stick. It thus, if well pruned and 

 kept down, very quickly grows into a thick and 

 intricately woven hedge. When it arrives at 

 the height of a tree, however, it makes wood 

 very slowly, and lives to a great age. The trunk 

 of an old hawthorn has a gnarled, rough, and 

 very picturesque effect, supporting its crown of 

 branches, white with innumerable blossoms. 

 Sometimes these trunks split into two or more 

 divisions, and thus in time gradually becoming 

 covered over with an extension of the bark, 

 appear as distinct stems. 



The timber of the hawthorn is extremely 

 hard and durable, and fit for many purposes of 

 utility. There are several distinct species, and 

 many varieties of the hawthorn, all natives of 

 Europe and America. The double-flowering is 

 one of the most ornamental for shrubberies. 

 The fruit of the sweet-scented, odoratissima, is 

 reckoned very agreeable; and that of the azarole 

 is much esteemed in the south of Europe : in 

 this country it rarely arrives at perfection. 



CHAP. XLIII. 



HAHOOANT, UONUHVITEiE, TEAK, MAGNOLIA, 

 TULIP TREE, &C. 



Mahogany Tree (swietinea mahogani). Na- 

 tural family meliacecE; dccandria, monogynia, of 



Linnteus. This is a very large and graceful tree, 

 with numerous spreading branches. The trunk is 

 of great size, covered with a rough, scaly, brown 

 bark, which on the younger branches is of a gray 

 colour. The leaves are compound; the leaflets 

 are pinnated, in three or four, rarely five pairs, 

 without any odd one at the top. They are en- 

 tire, ovately lance-shaped, oblique, reclining, 

 smooth, and about two inches and a half long. 

 The flowers are small, of a white colour; the 



calyx bell-shaped. The capsiile is ovate, large, 

 five-celled, and contains numerous compressed 

 seeds. It is a native of the West India islands, 

 and the warmer parts of the adjoining continent 

 of America; and has become celebrated, and in 

 request, from the beauty and durability of its 

 wood. The trees on the Bahama islands are not 

 so large, but are more curiously veined; and are 

 known in Europe as Madeira wood. 



Smetenia mahogani is, perhaps, the most 

 majestic of trees; for though some rise to a greater 

 height, this tree, like the oak and the cedar, 

 impresses the spectator with the strongest feelings 

 of its firmness and duration. In the rich val- 

 leys among the mountains of Cuba, and those 

 that open upon the bay of Honduras, the 

 mahogany expands to so giant a trunk, divides into 

 so many massy a^'ms, and throws the shade of 

 its shining green leaves, spotted with tufts of 

 pearly flowers, over so vast an extent of surface, 

 that it is difficult to imagine a vegetable pro- 

 duction combining in such a degree the qualities 

 of elegance and strength, of beauty and sublim- 

 ity. The precise period of its growth is not 

 accurately known; but as, when large, it changes 

 but little during the life of a man, the time of 

 its arriving at maturitj- is probably not less than 

 two hundred years. Some idea of its size, and 

 also of its commercial value, may be formed 

 from the fact that a single log, imported at Liv- 

 erpool, weighed nearly seven tons; was in the 

 first instance, sold for £378; resold for i'525; and 

 would, had the dealers been certain of its quality, 

 been worth £1000. Mahogany of remaikablefine- 

 ness is very costly, being much prized as a fancy 

 wood. 



As is the case with much other timber, the 

 finest mahogany trees, both for size and quality, 

 are not in the most accessible situations; and as 

 it is always imported in large masses, the trans- 

 portation of it for any distance overland is so 

 difficult, that the very best trees, both on the 

 islands and on the main land — those that grow 

 in the rich inland valleys — defy the means of 

 removal possessed by the natives. Classes of 

 from six to eight tons are not very easily 

 moved in any country; and in a mountainous 

 and rocky one, where much attention is not paid 

 to mechanical power, to move them is impossible. 

 In Cuba, the inhabitants have neither enterprise 

 nor skill adequate to felling the mahogany trees, 

 and transporting them to the shore; and thus the 

 finest timber remains unused. 



The discovery of this beautiful timber was 

 accidental, and its introduction into notice wa" 

 slow. The first mention of it is that it was usea 

 in the repair of some of Sir Walter Raleigh's 

 ships, at Trinidad, in 1597. Its finely varie- 

 gated tints were admired; but in that age the 

 dream of El Dorado caused matters of more 

 value to be neglected. The first that was brought 



