Mahogany

Mahogany, the wood of the Sweetenia mahagoni, a tree from 80 to 100 feet high, belonging to the natural order Cedrelaceæ, a native of the West Indies and of South America. The tree attains an immense size, and its timber is generally sound throughout in the largest trees. It is most abundant on the coast of Honduras and around Campeachy Bay. St Domingo and Cuba yield a finer quality than that obtained from the mainland, which is frequently called Bay Wood, to distinguish it from Cuba mahogany, usually called Spanish. The wood varies much in value, according to the colour and beauty of curl; single logs have occasionally realised 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. The first notice we have of mahogany is in connection with the repairing of some of Sir Walter Raleigh's ships in Trinidad in 1597; but the wood does not appear to have been carried to Britain till about the end of the 17th century, when it was brought from the West Indies as ballast by a Captain Gibbons. The captain's brother wished to use the timber for his house then in course of erection, but the workmen declined to work it owing to its extreme hardness. A portion was, however, given to one Wollaston, a cabinet-maker, of which to make a candle-box for Dr Gibbons. When finished, the box exhibited such rare beauty as to create much interest in society; and bureaus made by Wollaston soon established the reputation of mahogany for cabinet-work. The annual imports into Britain are about 40,000 tons, with a value of £350,000. The bark has a faint aromatic smell and a very astringent bitter taste, and in the countries where the tree grows is used as a medicine. As Mahogany Bark, or Amaranth Bark, it has been employed as a substitute for Peruvian Bark.—East India Mahogany is the timber of the Rohuna Tree (Soymida febrifuga), and African Mahogany of the Khaya Senegalensis, both of the order Cedrelaceæ.