100 
MAHOGANY TREE. 
the stern attaining very large dimensions, acquiring a 
diameter of 5 or 6 feet. It grows in the warmest parts 
of America, as in Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo, Aca- 
pulco on the Pacific, Realijo in Guatemala, and the 
Bahama islands, and generally affects a rocky soil or 
the sides of mountains, growing often in places almost 
absolutely deprived of earth. The seeds germinate in the 
clefts of rocks, and when the roots meet any insurmount- 
able impediment, they spread out and creep till they find 
entrance into other clefts into which they can penetrate, 
and sometimes it happens that the increasing dimensions 
of the roots succeed so far as to split the rocks themselves. 
Such trees in the Bahama islands, growing so contorted for 
want of soil, produce the much esteemed and curiously 
veined wood, known in Europe as “ Madeira wood.” In 
Jamaica it is also a common tree on the plains or lower 
hill sides, and Dr. Macfadyen remarks, in that island he 
had never met with it at an elevation above 3000 feet, nor 
very close to the sea shore. In some of the islands it is 
now rare in the neighbourhood of the sea, because of its 
convenience for embarkation, and it is cut down of all 
ages, without any forethought for the future. 
Doctor Macfadyen, speaking of the Mahogany of Ja- 
maica says, “ It is at present much more scarce than it 
appears to have formerly been. It was from this island 
that the supply for Europe was in former times principally 
obtained, and the old Jamaica Mahogany is still considered 
superior to any that can now be procured from other coun- 
tries. In 1753, according to Dr. Browne, 521,300 feet in 
planks, were shipped from this island, but at present very 
little is exported from it. It was formerly so plentiful as 
to be applied to the commonest purposes ; such as planks, 
boards, shingles, &c.” “The beauty of the Mahogany 
wood, is said to have been first discovered by a carpenter 
on board of Sir Walter Raleigh’s vessel, at the time the 
