176 THALAMI FLORAE. 
* «. 
glabrous, with the branches dichotomous, and at the base mi- 
nutely bracteated. Flowers small, and greenish yellow. 
Calyx minute, 5-lobed, with the lobes rounded, minutely ero- 
ded. Petals oblongo-ovate, coriaceous. Tube of the stamens 
cylindrical, shorter than the petals, 10-toothed at the apex, in- 
ternally a little below the apex bearing the anthers, which are 
small, ovato-rotund, yellow, alternating with the teeth of the 
tube. Disk encircling the base of the ovary, amber-coloured, 
short, denticulate. Ovary ovate, green : style cylindrical : 
stigma peltate. Capsule egg-shaped, size of an orange, rufous 
brown, minutely tuberculated, 5-celled, opening with 5 valves 
from the base, covered within with a distinct coriaceous plate. 
Receptacle central, large, 5-agonal, with the angles prominent, 
opposite, and meeting up with the edges of the valves, so as to 
form the septa of the cells : seeds attached to the apex of the 
receptacle, 15 in each cell, some of the outer and upper ones 
abortive, compressed, truncated at the base, expanded at the 
apex into a membranaceous oblong wing : albumen white, thin : 
radicle small. 
The Mahogany delights in a light stony or marly soil, and 
is a common tree in our plains and lower hills. I have never 
met with it at an elevation above 3000 feet, nor very close to 
the sea-shore. 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 any other country. Ill 
1753, according to Dr Browne, 521,300 feet in planks were 
shipped from this Island. It was formerly so plentiful as to 
be applied to the commonest purposes ; such as planks, boards, 
shingles, &c. Now, however, although by no means scarce, we 
employ inferior woods on such occasions. 
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 ship was in harbour at Trinidad, in 
1595. It is related that the first use to which mahogany was 
applied in England, was to make a candle box. It was brought 
into notice by Dr Gibbons, an eminent Physician in London, 
about the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, 
who had received some planks from his brother, who com- 
manded a vessel in the West India trade. Since that, it has 
been employed for every costly article of furniture, and occu- 
pies a place in the drawing rooms and dining halls of royalty 
itself, supplanting the oaken tables and pannelling of the olden 
time. The most beautiful part of the wood is that obtained by 
sawing across the bottom of the stem and root. No other 
wood, not even the Yacca, can rival it in its infinitely diversified 
shades, now waved, now dotted, and now clouded ; more varied 
than even the tortoise shell, to which it bears some resem- 
