IDENTIFICATION" OF TEUE MAHOGANY. 5, 



Mahogany is rarely sold under any other trade name, except that 

 the very light grades are called "bay mahogany" or "bay wood." 

 The Spanish name is " caoba " and in Florida it is called " maderia." 

 Swietenia drrhata is known locally as " venadillo." 



Occasionally the name mahogany is modified so as to indicate the 

 country it came from, as Honduras mahogany, Tabasco mahogany, 

 Cuban mahogany, etc. 



WHEKE GKOWN. 



True mahogany grows in tropical America from southern Florida 

 and northern Mexico to northern South America, including the West 

 Indies. It does not grow naturally in Brazil or other parts of the 

 world. According to Blake ,^ Swietenia ?nahagoni grows in the 

 West Indies, Bermuda, and the keys of southern Florida ; S. macro- 

 phylla grows along the eastern coast from the State of Tabasco, 

 Mexico, to Honduras and possibly farther south; S, hwnilis is a 

 native tree of the west coast from Guerrero, Mexico, to northwestern 

 Guatemala; 8. cirrhata is known to occur naturally in western 

 Mexico from Sinaloa to El Salvador ; and S. candoUei is a native of 

 Venezuela. Of the five species, Swietenia mahagoni and S. maora- 

 fhylla are the more common. Swietenia macrophyTla^ which has 

 larger leaves and larger fruit than the West Indian species, grows 

 principally on low lands, and, as a rule, produces softer and lighter 

 colored wood than S. mahagoni,' however, no distinct differences in 

 the wood by means of which each species can be identified have so 

 far been observed. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. 



The wood of true mahogany is highly variable in weight; pieces 

 ranging in specific gravity from 0.34 to 0.90, based on oven-dry 

 weight and oven-dry volume, have been found, although very few 

 pieces have a specific gravity greater than 0.70. The wood from 

 southern Florida and Cuba averages heavier than that from Central 

 America. 



The color of true mahogany varies from very pale to very dark 

 reddish-brown. The wood is without characteristic odor or taste. 

 True mahogany usually has interlocked grain, which gives the 

 " ribbon " effect to quarter-sawed material. Unlike most other woods 

 with interlocked grain, it does not warp easily. 



STBUCTUEE. 



The pores in true mahogany are plainly visible without a hand 

 lens as minute holes on a smoothly cut end surface (see fig. 1) and 

 as grooves on longitudinal surfaces. They are scattered singly or in 

 short radial rows of 2 to 4. Some of the pores are filled with a dark 



*• Blake, S. F., "Revision of tlie True Mahoganies." Journal of the Washington Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, vol. 10, pp. 286-297, f. 1-2. 



