Swietenia
(named in honour of Gerard von Swieten, 1700-1772, a Dutch botanist and author). ORD. Meliaceae. A monotypic genus. The species is a tall, stove tree, with fuscous-red wood-well known as Mahogany, and extensively employed in the manufacture of furniture, &c. S. Mahagoni thrives in a compost of loam and sand. It may be increased by ripened cuttings, with the leaves intact, inserted in sand, under a hand-glass, in heat.
S. Mahagoni. Mahogany-tree. fl. reddish-yellow, small, in axillary and sub-terminal panicles; calyx five-cleft; petals five, imbricated. May. l. abruptly pinnate, highly glabrous; leaflets opposite, petiolulate, oblique, ovate, long-acuminate. h. 70ft. Central America and the Antilles, 1734.