CHAPTER IV.

History of the Mahogany Tree.-First used by Cortez, for Shipbuilding, about the year 1521-By Sir W. Raleigh, in 1597-By Captain Dampier, in 1681-First used in England, for Cabinet-making, in 1754-Account of it in Catesby's Natural History, 1754, and in St. Pierre's Studies of Nature. Description of the Mahogany Tree, and its Botanical characters-mode of cutting and collecting in British Honduras, and Cuba.

The Mahogany Tree, from an early period, was used by the Spaniards for Shipbuilding. The first mention of it occurs shortly after the discovery of the New World, when Cortez and his companions, between the years 1521 and 1540, employed it in the construction of the ships which they built for prosecuting their voyages of discovery, after their conquest of Mexico.-See the Letters of Cortez to the Emperor Charles V.

In 1597, it was used in the repairs of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships, in the West Indies; and Capt. Dampier, in one of his voyages, in 1681, speaking of Mahogany, or, as it was then called Cedrela or Cedar, says, "it was concluded to go with all our ships to St. Andreas, near the Isle of Providence, and besides, at this Island, we might build canoes, it being plentifully stored with large Cedars, and for this reason, the Jamaica men come hither frequently to build sloops,-Cedar being very fit for building. We reckon the pereagos and canoes, which are built of Cedar, the best of any."

In St. Pierre's "Studies of Nature," it is stated "that on the shores of the Antilles, grows the Mahogany, there called Cedar, on account of its incorruptibility. It grows to such a bulk, that with the trunk of a single tree, they make a boat capable of carrying forty persons."

Catesby, in his work on Natural History, published in 1754, speaks of the excellency of Mahogany for all domestic

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purposes, and mentions that it is no less esteemed for shipbuilding: "having properties for that use, excelling Oak and all other Woods, viz., durableness, resisting gun shots, and burying the shot without splintering."

Mahogany was first imported into England in its unmanufactured state, in 1724, and it will, perhaps, be interesting to mention the account of its introduction given in Lunan's Hortus Jamaicensus. A few planks, it is related, were sent to Dr. Gibbons, of London, by a brother, who was a West India Captain. The Doctor was erecting a house in King street, Covent Garden, and gave the planks to the workmen who rejected them as being too hard. The Doctor's Cabinet-maker, named Wollaston, was then employed to make a candlebox of them, but as he was sawing up the planks he also complained of the hardness of the timber, but when the candle-box was finished, it outshone in beauty all the Doctor's other furniture, and became an object of curiosity and exhibition. The wood was then taken into favour. Dr. Gibbons had a bureau made of it and the Duchess of Buckingham another, and the despised Mahogany now became an article of luxury, and at the same time raised the fortune of the Cabinet-maker by whom it had at first been so little regarded.

THE MAHOGANY TREE.

It is described as being one of the most majestic and beautiful of trees; its trunk is often 50 feet in length, and 12 feet in diameter, and it divides into so many huge arms, and throws the shade of its shining green leaves over so vast an extent of surface, that a more magnificent or more useful object is not to be met with in the vegetable world. The precise period of its growth is not accurately known; but, as when large, it changes little during the life of a man, the time of its arriving at maturity is probably not less than 200 years.

There are three species of Mahogany, 1st, Swietenia, being the common Mahogany, known to the Wood Trade; 2nd, the Febrifuga, and 3rd, Chloroxylon. The first is a native of the West India Islands, and the Central

parts of America. It used formerly to grow in great abundance along the Coast of Jamaica; but having, in process of time, been almost exterminated, it is now only to be seen in the mountainous recesses and inaccessible districts of the Island. It was once also plentiful at the Bahamas, where it grew on the rocks to a great height.

The first species, Mahogani Swietenia, was named after the celebrated Baron Von Swieten, physician to Maria Theresa, Empress of Germany; and the following are its botanical characters :-The class is Decandria Monogynia, Nat. order Trihilato of Linneus. Its essential characters are, Calyx 5 cleft, Petals 5, Nectary Cylindrical, bearing the Stamens at its orifice; Capsule 5 celled, woody, opening at the base; seeds very many, imbricate, compressed, oblong, with a leafy wing; leaves, pinnate reclining, alternate shining, numerous on the younger branches; leaflets mostly in four pairs, often three, and but seldom five, without an odd one, lanceolate, quite entire, opposite, 1 inch long, stalked; panicles corymbose, with about eight flowers in each, small, whitish, occasionally of a reddish or saffron colour. (See the drawing annexed.)

Linneus remarks that the Mahogany tree has a great affinity with Cedrela, (the name by which the Spaniards at the conquest of Mexico knew this tree,) and the capsules are nearly alike, but those of the Cedrela much smaller; the germ and the fruit are also similar. The flower agrees, in many respects, with that of Melia of Jussieu.

The second species, viz., Mahogani Febrifuga, or East India Mahogany, is described as a tree of vast size, growing in the mountainous parts of Central Hindostan, with a lofty straight trunk, covered with a grey scabrous bark, externally