AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 131 
Swietenia Mahagoni 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 valleys 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 arms, 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: production com- 
bining in such a degree the qualities of elegance and 
strength, of beauty and sublimity. 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 maturity 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, im- 
ported at Liverpool, weighed nearly seven tons; was, in 
the first instance, sold for £378; resold for £525; and 
would, had the dealers been certain of its quality, have 
been worth £1000. 
As is the case with much other timber, the finest Ma- 
hogany trees, both for size and quality, are not in the 
most accessible situations, and as it is always imported in 
large masses, the transportation of it for any distance over 
land is so difficult, that the very best trees, both on the 
islands and on the main land—those that grow in the rich 
inland vallies—defy the means of removal possessed by 
the natives. Masses of from six to eight tons are not 
very easily moved in any country; and in the mountain- 
ous and rocky one, where much attention is not paid to 
mechanical power, to move them isimpossible. 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 was slow. The first men- 
tion of it is, that it was used in the repair of some of Sir 
Walter Raleigh’s ships at Trinidad in 1597. The first 
that was brought to England was about the beginning of 
last century; a few planks having been sent to Dr. Gib- 
bons, of London, by a brother, who was a West India 
captain. The Doctor was erecting a house in King-street, 
Covent Garden, and gave the planks to the workmen, who 
rejected it as being too hard. The Doctor’s cabinet-ma- 
ker, named Wollaston, was employed to make a candle- 
box of it, and as he was sawing up the plank he also com- 
plained of the hardness of the timber. But when the 
candle-box was finished, it outshone in beauty all the 
Doctor’s other furniture, and became an object of curiosity 
and exhibition. The wood was then taken into fayour: 
Dr. Gibbons had a bureau made of it, and the Dutchess of 
Buckingham another; and the despised Mahogany now 
became a prominent article of luxury, and at the same 
time raised the fortunes of the cabinet-maker by whom it 
had been at first so little regarded. 
The Mahogany tree is found in great quantities on the 
low and woody lands, and even upon the rocks in the 
countries on the western shores of the Caribbean sea, 
about Honduras and Campeachy. It is also abundant in 
the Islands of Cuba and Hayti, and it used to be plentiful 
in Jamaica, where it was of excellent quality; but most of 
the larger trees have been cut down. It was formerly 
abundant on the Bahamas, where it grew, on the rocks, to 
a great height, and four feet in diameter. In the earliest 
periods it was much used by the Spaniards in ship-build- 
ing. When first introduced by them it was very dark and 
hard, and without much of that beautiful variety of colour 
which now renders it superior to all other timber for cabi- 
net work; but it was more durable, and took a higher po- 
lish with less labour. Of course it was wholly unknown 
to the ancients. It was first introduced in the sixteenth 
century, but it was not generally used in England till the 
eighteenth. 
The Mahogany is a graceful tree, with many branches 
that form a very handsome head. The leafets are in pairs, 
mostly four, and sometimes three, but very rarely five; the 
pair opposite, and without any odd leafet at the point; 
they are smooth and shining, lance-shaped, entire at the 
edges like those of the laurel, and bent back: each leafet is 
about two inches and a half long, and the whole leaf is 
about eight inches. The flowers are small and whitish, 
and the seed-vessel has some resemblance to that of the 
Barbadoes cedar: hence some botanists have given the 
name of cedar to the tree. 
This tree so far corresponds with the pine tribe, that 
the timber is best upon the coldest soils and in the most 
exposed situations. When it grows upon moist soils and 
warm lands, it is soft, coarse, spongy, and contains sap- 
wood, into which some worms will eat. That which is 
most accessible at Honduras is of this description; and 
therefore it is only used for coarser works, or for a ground 
on which to lay veneers of the choicer sorts. For the lat- 
ter purpose it is well adapted, as it holds glue better than 
deal, and, when properly seasoned, is not so apt to warp 
or to be eaten by insects. When it grows in favourable 
situations, where it has room to spread, it is of much bet- 
ter quality, and puts out large branches, the junction of 
which with the stem furnish those beautifully curled 
pieces of which the choicest veneers are made. When 
among rocks and much exposed, the size is inferior, and 
there is not so much breadth or variety of shading; but 
