IDENTIFICATION OF TRUE MAHOGANY. 9 



WHERE GROWN. 



Countries bordering on the Gulf of Guinea, west coast of Africa. 



PHYSICAL PKOPEKTIES. 



The wood is considerably heavier than that of the Khayas. The 

 grain may be very much interlocked, but no information as to whether 

 the wood warps easily is available. No pronounced odor or taste is 

 present in the wood, although a slight odor, faintly resembling that 

 of Spanish cedar, is noticeable in some pieces. 



STEUCTTJBE. 



The pores are visible without magnification on smoothly cut end 

 and longitudinal surfaces. They are fairly uniform in size, evenly 

 distributed, singly or often in twos, and occasionally in threes. As 

 in other species of the mahogany family, the pores contain moro or 

 less of a dark reddish-brown gum. 



The chief characteristic of sapeli is the presence of numerous tan- 

 gential lines of soft tissue seen on a smoothly cut end section of the 

 wood. (See fig. 4.) These lines are usually darker, but may be 

 lighter, than the other portion of the wood and average 40 to 50 to 

 the radial inch. The constant closeness of these lines eliminates the 

 possibility of mistaking them for lines limiting growth rings, as in 

 true mahogany. Seasonal growth rings are not clearly defined. 

 According to Record,^^ the rays are more or less storied as seen on 

 the tangential faces, but this was not the case in the specimens 

 available to the writer. 



"AFRICAN MAHOGANY." 



(Khaya spp.) 



Mahogany Family (Meliace^). 



othee names. 



Several species of the genus Khaya are marketed as African 

 mahogany.^^ Probably the most common one is Khaya senegalensis 

 A. Juss. Other names applied to these species are " Senegal mahog- 

 any," " Gambia mahogany," " Benin mahogany," and " Gaboon ma- 

 hogany," indicating the regions from which the species are obtained. 



Other specifes, as sapeli, and some not of the mahogany family, 

 are occasionally called "African mahogany," but very little wood 

 of these species is brought into the United States. 



^ Record, S. J., " Mahogany and Some of Its Substitutes." Journal of Forestry, Vol. 

 XVII, No. 1, Jan., 1919. 



1^ For detailed information concerning the various species of Khaya see Unwin, Har- 

 old A., " West African Forests and Forestry." 



