MAHOGANY, the timber of Sweetgum Mahogany (Linnæus); Natural Order, Cedrelaceæ. The mahogany tree is a native of South America, Cuba, St Domingo, Jamaica, and especially of Honduras, and is one of the most magnificent and valuable of tropical timber trees. It grows rapidly, yet its timber is very hard and heavy; its height is from 80 to 100 feet, with usually a very straight stem of great diameter. It is commonly imported in logs from 2 to 3 feet square, of various lengths, not often exceeding 18 feet. That called Spanish mahogany is usually smaller, the logs being generally about 2 feet square by about 10 feet in length. The grain, or curl, as it is called, is sometimes so exceedingly beautiful that it raises the value of a log to an extraordinary price. More than £1000 has been realized several times by the sale of a single log. Mahogany was introduced into England in 1595. By some the dis-
Mahomet. discovery of its value is attributed to the carpenter of Sir Walter Raleigh's ship; and another account states that it was first employed for cabinet-work in England in 1720, by one Wollaston, a cabinet-maker in London, who being accidentally requested to make some small articles from this wood for Dr Gibbons, a physician in that city, discovered its rare properties, which, on being made public, soon rendered both the workman and the material highly famous. It is chiefly imported from Honduras and Cuba. The average imports of the last five years are 38,000 tons, worth about £500,000. (T. C. A.)