794 
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S WETOE, or Deswetoe, a small island in the Caspian 
sea, distinguished by the production of naptha, which the 
inhabitants convey from the springs by means of troughs; 
25 miles east of Baku. 
SWE'VEN, s. [ppepen, Sax.] A dream. Obsolete .— 
Nothing but vanitee in swevcn is. Chaucer. 
SWIECZECHOW. See Schwetzko. 
SWIETEN (Gerard Van), Baron, first physician to their 
imperial majesties at Vienna, was’born at Leyden, on the 
7th of May, -1700. He was descended of an ancient and 
reputable family of the Low Countries, but lost his parents 
at an early age, in consequence of which his early educa¬ 
tion was said to have been somewhat neglected. Having 
passed through the usual grammatical studies, he was sent 
at the age of sixteen to the university of Louvain, where he 
was soon distinguished by his industry and superior attain¬ 
ments in the philosophical classes. Determining, however, 
upon following the profession of medicine, he returned to 
Leyden, where he became a most zealous and favourite 
pupil of the illustrious Boerhaave. After seven years of 
study under this great master, he took the degree of doctor 
in 1725, and he w r as soon after appointed to a medical pro¬ 
fessorship, which he occupied for many years with great dis¬ 
tinction. To his lectures, as well as to those of his celebrated 
colleague, the medical students of Germany, France, and 
England, resorted in crowds. 
His constitution began to fail about the year 1769, and 
after three years of declining energy, he was attacked with 
a mortification in one of his toes in June, 1772, which ter¬ 
minated fatally, after he had prepared for death by an ex¬ 
emplary performance of all acts of devotion. 
The great work, upon which the reputation of baron Van 
Swieten is built, is his copious and learned commentaries upon 
the aphorisms of his respected master; it is entitled “ Corn- 
men taria in Hermanni Boerhaavii Aphorismos de cognoscendis 
et curandis Morbis,” and extended to five volumes quarto. 
It is a vast magazine of medical practice and pathological 
research, the result of the author’s extensive reading and 
of his personal experience: the immense mass of well-select¬ 
ed and well-arranged facts which it contains, and the ju¬ 
dicious summary of the knowledge of the best ancient writers, 
as well as of his own time which it presents, renders it a work 
of great value. 
SWIETENIA [so named by Jacquin, in honour of the 
illustrious Gerard, Van Swieten, Archiater to Maria Teresa, 
Empress of Germany, who at his persuasion founded the bo¬ 
tanic garden at Vienna], in Botany, a genus of the class de- 
candria, order monogynia, natural order of triliilatae, melie 
(Juss.) —Generic Character:—Calyx: perianth one-leafed; 
five-cleft, obtuse, very small, deciduous. Corolla: petals five, 
obovate, obtuse, concave, spreading; nectary one-leafed, 
cylindric, length of the petals; mouth ten-toothed. Stamina: 
filaments ten, very small, inserted below the teeth of the nec¬ 
tary. Anthers oblong, erect. Pistil: germ ovate. Style 
awl-shaped, erect, length of the nectary. Stigma headed, 
flat. Pericarp: capsule ovate, large, woody, one-celled; 
at the top five-celled, five-valved; valves opening at the 
base. Seeds very many, imbricate, compressed, oblong, 
obtuse, having a leafy wing. Receptacle large, five-corner¬ 
ed. It is allied to Cedrela by the fruit.— Essential Charac¬ 
ter. —Calyx, five-cleft. Petals five. Nectary cylindric, 
bearing the anthers at the mouth. Capsule five-celled ; 
woody, opening at the base. Seeds imbricate, winged. 
1. Swietenia mahogani, or mahogany tree.—Leaves pin¬ 
nate, about four-paired; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, equal at 
the base; panicles axillary. The mahogany is a lofty 
and very branching tree, with a wide handsome head. 
Racemes subcorymbed, with about eight flowers in 
each, axillary, solitary, two inches long. Flowers small, 
whitish. 
The mahogany tree is a native of the warmest parts of 
America, and grows plentifully in the islands of Cuba, Ja¬ 
maica and Hispaniola; there are also many of the trees on 
the Bahama islands. In Cuba and Jamaica there are (or 
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rather were) trees of a very large size, so as to cut into planks 
of six feet breadth. Those on the Bahama islands are not 
so large; though these are frequently four feet diameter, and 
rise to a great height, notwithstanding they are generally 
found on the solid rock, where there seems to be scarcely any 
earth for their nourishment. 
The wood which has been brought from the Bahama is¬ 
lands has usually passed under the name of Madeira wood. 
The Spaniards make great use of this wood for building 
ships, and it is better adapted to this purpose than most sorts 
of wood yet known, being very durable, resisting gun-shots, 
and burying the shot without splintering; nor is the worm 
so apt to eat this wood as that of the oak; so that for the 
West Indies, ships built of mahogany are preferable to any 
other. The excellency of this wood for all domestic purposes 
has been long known in England; and it is a matter of sur¬ 
prize that for a long time the only author who had noticed 
this tree was Mr. Catesby. 
2. Swietenia febrifuga.—Leaves pinnate, about four-pair¬ 
ed ; leaflets elliptic-roundish emarginate, unequal at the base; 
panicle terminating, divaricate. This is a very large tree, 
with a straight trunk, rising to a great height and thick¬ 
ness, and covered with a gray, scabrous, cracked bark. 
Branches numerous; the lower spreading, the higher as¬ 
cending, forming a very large shady head. Peduncles 
and pedicels round and smooth. Bractes very minute.— 
Native of the mountainous parts of Rajahmundry Cicar, 
north of Samulootah and Peddapore. It flowers about the 
end of the cold, or beginning of the hot season ; and the 
seeds ripen in three or four months after. The wood 
is of a dull red colour, remarkably hard and heavy; it 
is reckoned by the natives the most durable wood they 
know, and on that account is used for all the wood 
work in their temples; it is also very serviceable for various 
other purposes. 
3. Swietenia chloroxylon.—Leaves pinnate, many-paired; 
leaflets halved-cordate obtuse; panicle terminating, spreading. 
This is a middle-sized tree, with the trunk tolerably erect: 
supporting a large spreading, evergreen, shady head : bark 
pretty smooth, of a dark rust-colour.—Native of the moun¬ 
tainous parts of the Circars; flowering at the beginning of the 
hot season. The wood of this tree is of a deep yellow colour, 
remarkably close-grained, heavy and durable: it is used for 
various economical purposes, and comes nearer to box wood 
than any other in that country. It is the Billoo of the Tel- 
lingas. 
Propagation and Culture .—In the West Indies this 
tree grows to a large size in a few years. The manner of 
their propagation in the Bahama islands, as described by Mr. 
Catesby, is as follows:—When the fruit is ripe, the outer 
hard shell separates next the foot-stalk, and thereby exposes 
the seeds; which being broad and light, are dispersed on the 
surface of the rocks. Such of them as happen to fall into 
the fissures, very soon send forth roots, and if these tender 
fibres meet with resistance from the hardness of the rock, 
they creep along the surface, and seek another fissure, into 
which they creep, and swell so as to break the rock, and 
thereby make way for the root to penetrate deeper. 
Sow the seeds in small pots filled with light sandy earth, 
and plunge them into a hot-bed of tanner’s bark, giving 
them a gentle watering once a week ; if the seeds are good, 
the plants will appear in a month or five weeks, and when 
they are two inches high, fill a sufficient number of small 
pots with light earth, and plunge them into the tan-bed a 
day or two, that the earth may be warmed before the plants 
are put into the pots; then shake out the young plants, care¬ 
fully separating them so as not to tear their roots, and plant 
each singly in the pots, shading them till they have taken 
fresh root: after which treat them in the same manner as di¬ 
rected for other plants from the West Indies; being careful 
not to give them much water, especially in winter; as also 
when they are shifted, to preserve the earth about their 
roots. 
SWIFT, adj. [ppipc. Sax.; swipan, Icel.; cito agere. 
Serenius. 
