TRUE MAHOGANY. 15 



past methods of lumbering was in the practice of leaving high 

 stumps. With a large tree the stump is one of the most valuable 

 parts, but it is seldom utilized. The trunks of mahogany trees are 

 disproportionately large at the bases, and native laborers in the 

 Tropics cut the stumps high to avoid the extra work of chopping 

 through the enlarged buttress, or " spurs " which spread out and form 

 massive triangular braces often extending from 8 to 10 feet beyond 

 the main axis of the trunk (PI. III). The trunks are so tapering 

 that if a tree is cut above this basal swelling from 200 to 500 board 

 feet of the choicest wood may be left in a single stump. The spurs 

 themselves also contain uniquely figured wood which would doubtless 

 command fancy prices. Needless waste of this sort is being eliminated 

 in the case of far less valuable trees than mahogany. 



Operators now exploiting mahogany in Mexican and Central Amer- 

 ican forests have pretty generally abandoned the primitive methods 

 of felling, hauling, rafting, or loosely floating the timber to shipping 

 ports. Instead of snaking or hauling logs to river banks with oxen 

 and clumsy conveyances, up-to-date methods of transportation are 

 now usually employed. There is also a better systematizing of the 

 work. While felling is in progress men are building railroads and 

 bridges over which carloads of logs are hauled to the port, where the 

 timber is placed on steamers for final shipment. Even carrying logs 

 by rail to inland waterways, where they are turned adrift and floated 

 down to the ships at tidewater, is done less frequently now, because 

 the logs are so bruised and splintered by striking rocks in their 

 transit down the river that they have to be hewed and sawed off at the 

 ends to remove the battered, useless wood. 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The mahogany trees {Swietenia mahagoni Jacq.) 1 and (Swietenia 

 macrophylla King.) 2 are among the most majestic and beautiful 

 evergreen trees of tropical America. They are members of the 

 family Meliaceae, to which belongs the closely related and well- 

 known China tree (Melia azedarach L.), extensively planted for 

 shade in the Southern States. In favorable locations mahogany at- 



1 Jacquin, who described this tree in 1760, named it in honor of the celebrated Baron 

 von Swieten, physician to Maria Theresa, Empress of Germany. The specific name 

 mahagoni is derived from the original French name mahagon. Botanists follow the orig- 

 inal spelling of the word mahagoni, while the Anglicized name is spelled mahogany. 



2 The mahogany of British Honduras and coastal plains of Mexico is a distinct species. 

 Zuccarini (in Abh. Akad. Muench. II (1831-1836) 355, L. T.-Mexico) described another 

 species, Swietenia humilis, which is regarded by the Mexicans as distinct from the other 

 two kinds. It is called gateado (Conzatti, C.-Flora sinoptica Mexicana. Oaxaca. 1897), 

 or flor de venadillo, to distinguish it from the larger tree (Swietenia mahagoni Jacq.), 

 which goes under the name of caoba, rosadillo, tozopilotlzontecomatl, tzopilotlzonecomatl, 

 zopipoquahuitl, zopilote, or zopilotl. Two other kinds, commonly known as zopilote Colo- 

 rado or zopilote negro, are recognized by Mexicans, but these are not described botanically 

 and can not now be regarded as distinct forms. 



