MAHOGANY, the wood of the trunk of the swietenia maltagoni, a tree of 80 to 100 ft high, belonging to the natural order cedrelaceffl. a native of the West Indies and of South America. It has pinnate leaves with 3 to 5 pairs of leaflets, and panicles of small whitish or yellow flowers, the stamens united into a tube which is toothed at the sum mit, and set round on the inside with 8 to 10 anthers. The capsule is 5-celled, about the size of a man's fist, hard, woody, and oval, and the seeds are winged at the apex. It attains an immense size, second to few others, and its timber is generally sound through out in the largest trees. The slow progress which it is observed to make, clearly indi cates that the trees which are cut for use must have attained a great age: 200 years has been assumed as an approximation. It is most abundant on the coast of Honduras and around Carnpeachy bay, whence the greater portion of that used in Europe is exported. St. Domingo and Cuba also yield a considerable quantity, which is of a finer quality than that obtained from the niaiuland, which is frequently called bay wood, to distin guish it from the Cuba mahogany, usually called Spanish. The occupation of cutting this timber and removing it to the coast for shipment is exceedingly laborious, and employ's a large number of men and oxen. The wood varies much in value, according
to the color and beauty of curl; single logs have occasionally- realized as much as £1000, for cutting into veneers, in which state it is very generally used, its great weight and value unfitting it for being always employed solid. It was first iutroduced into England by. accident in 1597, having been used to repair one of sir Walter Raleigh's. ships at Trinidad; but although the wood so employed was much admireil, it did not become an article of commerce until rather more than a century later, when another accidental circumstance brought it into demand, and it became an article of luxury, and has since maintained the highest position as a cabinet-rnaker's wood. The annual imports into Britain are over 50,000 tons, exceeding half a million sterling in value. The bark has a faint aromatic smell, and a very astringent bitter taste, and in the coun tries where the tree grows is used as a medicine. In England it has been recommended and used under the name mahogany bark, or amaranth bark, as a substitute for Peruvian bark.—EasT INDIA MAHOGANY is the timber of the rohuna tree (soymida febrifuga), and AFRICAN MAROGANY of the khaya senegalensis, both of the order cedrelacece.