IDENTIFICATION OF TRUE 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 cirrhata 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. 
WHERE GROWN. 
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, 6 Swietenia. mahagoni 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. humilis is a 
native tree of the west coast from Guerrero, Mexico, to northwestern 
Guatemala; S. cirrhata is known to occur naturally in western 
Mexico from Sinaloa to El Salvador ; and S. candollei is a native of 
Venezuela. Of the five species, Swietenia mahagoni and S. macro- 
phylla are the more common. Swietenia macrophylla, 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. 
STRUCTURE. 
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 
e Blake, S. F., "Revision of the True Mahoganies." Journal of the Washington Acad- 
emy of Sciences, vol. 10, pp. 286-297, f. 1-2. 
