C E D 
wood being foft, it may be cut out with great faci- 
lity, and being light, it will carry a great weight on 
the water. There are canoes in tne 'Weft Indies, 
which have been formed out of thefe trunks, which 
are forty feet long and fix broad the wood is light, 
of a brown colour, and has a fragrant odoin , from 
whence the title of Cedar has been given to it. . I his 
wood is frequently cut into lhingles tor covering of 
houfes, and is found very durable ; but as tne woims 
are apt to eat this wood, it is not proper for bmld- 
incr of fhips, though it is often ufed for that purpofe, 
as°alfo for fheathing of fhips. It is often ufed for 
wainfcoting of rooms, and to make chefts, becaufe 
vermin do not fo frequently breed in it, as in many 
other forts of wood, this having a very bitter tafte, 
which is communicated to whatever is put into the 
chefts, efpecially when the wood is frefh •, for whicn 
reafon it is never made into calks, becaufe fpirituous 
liquors will difiolve part of the relin, and thereoy ac- 
quire a very bitter tafte. 
This tree rifes with a ftrait Hern to the height of fe- 
venty or eighty feet, while young the bark is fmooth, 
and of an Alh-colour ; but as they advance, the bark 
becomes rough and of a darker colour, i oward the 
top it Ihoots out many fide branches, garnilhed with 
winged leaves, compofed of fixteen or eighteen pair 
of lobes (or fmall leaves) fo that they are fometimes 
near three feet long ; the lobes are broad at their 
bale, and are near two inches long, blunt at their 
ends, and of a pale colour •, thele emit a very rank 
odour in the fummer feafon, fo as to be very offen- 
five. As I have not feen any of thefe flowers upon 
the trees, I Cfin give no defeription of them. The 
fruit is oval, about the fize of a partridge’s egg, 
fmooth, of a very dark colour, and opens in live 
parts, having a five-cornered column Handing in the 
middle, between the angles of which the winged feeds 
are clofely placed, lapping over each other like the 
feales of fifh. 
There are fome plants of this fort in England, which 
are preferved in the gardens of thofe who are curious 
in collecting exotic plants •, thefe have been railed 
from the feeds which have been brought from Barba- 
does, but they are too tender to live in the open air 
in England ; therefore thefe plants fhould be treated 
in the°fame manner as the Mahogony next 1 mentioned, 
but they are of much quicker growth ; for in four 
years from the feed, I have had the plants upward of 
ten feet high. 
I have received plants of this kind from Paris, by 
the title of Semiruba •, but whether the root of this 
tree is what they ufe in medicine under that appella- 
tion, I cannot fay. The feeds of this have alfo been 
lent me from the French iftands in America, by the 
tide of Acajou Cedre. 
It is propagated by feeds, which may be eafily pro- 
cured from the American iflands, which muft be fown 
upon a hot-bed in the lpring, and the plants treated 
in the fame manner as the next. 
The lecond fort is the Mahogony, whofe wood is now 
well known in England. 
This tree is a native of the warmeft parts of Ameri- 
ca, growing .plentifully in the iflands of Cuba, Ja- 
maica, and Hiipaniola ; there are alfo many of them 
on the Bahama Iflands, but I have not heard of their 
being found in any of the Leeward Iflands. In Cuba 
and Jamaica there are trees of a very large fize, fo as 
to cut into planks of fix feet breadth but thofe on 
the Bahama Iflands are not fo large, though they are 
frequently four feet diameter, and rife to a great 
height, notwithftanding they are generally found 
growing upon the folid rocks, where there is fcarce 
any earth for their nouriftiment. The wood which 
has been brought from the Bahama Iflands has ufually 
pahed under the appellation of Madeira wood, but 
there is no doubt of its being the fame as the Maho- 
gony. The Spaniards make great ufe of this wood 
for building of fhips •, for which purpofe it is better 
adapted, than any other fort of wood yet known, be- 
ing very durable, refilling gun fhots, and burying 
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the fhot without fplintering ; nor is the worm fo apt 
to eat this wood as that of the Oak, fo that for the 
Weft Indies the fhips built of Mahogony are prefera- 
ble to any other. 
The excellency of this wood for all domeftic ufes, 
is now fufficiently known in England ; and it is mat- 
ter of furprife, that the tree fhould not have been 
taken notice of by any .hiftorian or traveller to this 
time j the only author who has mentioned this tree, 
is Mr. Catefby, in his Natural Hiftory of Carolina, 
and the Bahafna Iflands, before whom I believe nei- 
ther the tree or the wood was taken notice of by any 
writer on natural- hiftory, although the wood has 
been many years brought to England in great quan- 
tities. 
In the Weft Indies thefe trees are of fo quick growth, 
as to arrive to a large fize in a few years ; the man- 
ner of their propagation in the Bahama Iflands, as it 
is deferibed by Mr. Catefby, is as follows : when the 
fruit is ripe, the outer hard fheil or covering fepa- 
rates at the bottom, next the foot-ftalk, thereby ex- 
pofing the feeds, which are faftened to a hard five- 
cornered column, Handing in the middle ; thefe feeds 
being broad and light, are difperfed on the furface of 
the ground, which is very rocky. Such of the feeds 
as happen to fall into the fiftlires of the rock, very 
foon fend forth roots ; and if thefe tender fibres meet 
with refiftance from the hardnefs of the rock, they 
creep out on the furface of it, and feek another fif- 
fure, into which they creep, and fwell to fuch a fize 
and ftrength, as to break the rock, and thereby make 
way for the root’s deeper penetration ; and by this 
nourifhment from the rock, the trees grow to a large 
fize in a few years. 
The leaves of this tree are winged like thofe of the 
Afh, having commonly fix or eight pair of pinnae 
(or lobes) which are fhorter and broader at their bafe 
than thofe of the Afh, where they adhere to the mid- 
rib by very fhort foot-ftalks ; thefe lobes are very 
fmooth, having but one vein running through each, 
which is always on one fide, fo as to divide them un- 
equally. We have no perfect account of the flower 
of this tree ; thofe which are exhibited in Mr. Catef- 
by’s Natural Hiftory, were drawn from a withered 
imperfect fragment, which were the only remains of 
the flowers v/hich could be found at the time when 
he was there ; but the fruit he has delineated very ex- 
actly, as I have had opportunity of comparing it with 
fome which have been brought to Ehgland. The en- 
tire fruit, before it opens, is of a brown colour ; thefe 
fruit grow ereft, upon foot-ftalks, which clofely ad- 
here to the five-cornered column, running through 
the middle of the fruit, and to which the feeds are 
faftened, lying imbrieatim like flates on a houfe, 
over each other ; fo that when the fruit is ripe, the 
outer cover divides at the bottom into five equal parts, 
and when thefe fall off, and the feeds are difperfed, 
the foot-ftalk and the column remain fome months 
after on the tree. 
It is propagated by feeds, which may be eafily pro- 
cured from the Bahama Iflands, from whence rnoft 
of the good feeds which have come to England were 
brought-, for moft of thefe which have been fentfrom 
Jamaica, although brought in their pods, have not 
Succeeded •, whereas, thofe from the Bahama Iflands, 
have grown as well as if they were immediately taken 
from the trees. The feeds fhould be fown in fmall 
pots filled with light fandy earth, and plunged into a 
hot- bed of tanners bark, giving them a gentle wa- 
tering once a week : if the feeds are good, the plants 
will appear in five or fix weeks ; and when they are 
two inches high, a fufficient number of fmall pots 
fhould be filled with light earth, and plunged into the 
tan- bed a day or two, that the earth may be warmed 
before the plants are put into the pots ; then the young 
plants lhould be fhaken out of the pots, and carefully 
Separated, fo as not to tear their roots, and each plant- 
ed in a Angle pot, being careful to fhade them till 
they have taken frefh root j after which they muft be 
treated in the fame manner as other tender plants from 
the 
