MAHOGANY, a dark-coloured wood largely used for house hold furniture, the product of a large tree indigenous to Central America and the West Indies. It was originally received from Jamaica; 521,300 ft. were exported from that island in 1753. It is known botanically as Swietenia Mahogani, and is a member of the family Meliaceae. It bears compound leaves, resembling those of the ash, and clusters of small flowers, with five sepals and petals and ten stamens which are united into a tube. The fruit is a pear-shaped woody capsule, and contains many winged seeds. The most valuable product is the timber, first noticed by the carpenter on board Sir Walter Raleigh's ship in 1595 for its great beauty, hardness and durability. Dr. Gibbons brought it into notice as well adapted for furniture in the early part of the 18th century, and its use as a cabinet wood was first practically estab lished by the cabinet-maker Wollaston, who was employed by Gib bons to work up some mahogany brought to England by his brother. It was introduced into India in 1795, and is now culti vated in Bengal and as far north as Saharanpur.
The timber of species of Cedrela and Melia, other members of the family Meliaceae, are used as mahogany, and the product of the West African Khaya senegalensis is known as African ma hogany. There is much confusion between the product of these various trees.
Kiggelaria Dregeana (family Bixaceae), a native of South Africa, is known as Natal mahogany.
In North America several small trees of the genus Cercocarpus (fam. Rosaceae, q.v.), with very hard, fine-grained, reddish wood, are called mountain mahogany. The curl-leaf mountain mahogany (C. ledifolius), sometimes 4o ft. high, is found from Colorado and Wyoming to California and Washington. The hairy mountain mahogany (C. paucidentatus) occurs from western Texas to Arizona. The birch-leaf mountain mahogany (C. betuloides), the alder-leaf mountain mahogany (C. alnifolius) and the Trask mountain mahogany (C. Traskiae) are confined to southern California. The last mentioned, named for its discoverer, Mrs. Blanche Trask, and known only from Santa Catalina island (q.v.), is one of the rarest of American trees. The small-leaf mountain mahogany (C. parviflorus) is a common shrub of the chaparral (q.v.) throughout the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges of Cali fornia. The dry wood of the trunk is so extremely dense that it is difficult to drive ordinary nails into it, whence the name hard tack given to this shrub by mountaineers. The mahogany sumach (Rhus integrifolia), a handsome evergreen shrub or small tree of southern California and adjacent Mexico, is sometimes called California mahogany.