134 QUASSIA. 
times to more than a thousand immense logs; and, each 
party claiming his own, the trees are formed into 
separate rafts for their final destinations. 
In some instances the profit of cutting mahogany 
at this settlement has been very great. A single 
tree has occasionally been known to contain 12,000 
superficial feet, and to have produced upwards of 
10001. sterling. 
The body of the tree is of course the most valuable ; 
but, for ornamental purposes, the limbs or large 
branches, are generally preferred, their grain being 
much closer, and their veins being more rich and va- 
riegated than those of the other parts. 
The Honduras mahogany is considered inferior to 
that produced in Jamaica. In this island mahogany 
was formerly much more abundant, and consequently 
much less expensive than it is now, because the low 
lands have gradually been thinned of such trees as 
could readily be carried to market, or conveyed on 
board vessels for exportation. 
The date of the introduction of mahogany wood into 
England is 1724-. Since this period it has been in very 
general request for making the more valuable kinds of 
household furniture. It admits of a high polish, and 
is excellently adapted for tables, chairs, desks, and 
other similar articles. In Jamaica, mahogany is em- 
ployed as a strong and durable timber for beams, joists, 
planks, boards, &c. Many attempts have been made 
to stain other kinds of wood so as to resemble it, but 
none of these have been attended with success. 
It has been lately discovered that the bark of the 
mahogany tree may be advantageously employed in 
medicine, as a substitute for Peruvian bark (62). 
144. QUASSIA is a drug, the root of a tree (Quassia 
amara, Fig. 78) which grazes in the West Indies and South 
America,) but particularly in the colony of Surinam. 
The leaves of the quassia tree are winged, with two pair of 
oval and somewhat pointed leaflets, and an odd one at the end : 
these are smooth, deep green above and pale below ; and the 
