Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/190

 CHAPTER XXV.

WEST INDIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

MAHOGANY, SPANISH (Swietenia),

Is the produce of the island of Cuba, and is indiscriminately called the Spanish or Cuba Mahogany. It is a tree of perfectly straight growth, and yields timber for the market of from 18 to 35 feet in length, by from 11 to 24 inches, dressed quite square, and generally with two or three stops or joggles, with the view to preserve as much timber as possible in the stem of the tree. (Vide Fig. 24.)

FIG. 24.

The wood is of a reddish-brown colour, hard, heavy, strong, close and straight in the grain, with occasionally a wavy or figured appearance; it is also very solid, especially about the centre, or pith, the heart-shake in this variety of the Swietenia being quite insignificant; the cup and star-shakes are also rare, and there is little sap-wood; so that it need not give us any anxiety in dealing with it, whatever may be the nature of the conversion required. It is susceptible of a very high polish, and with the wave or figure well marked, it possesses