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Natural Order Meliaceae. A large timber tree of Honduras, Cuba, Central America, and Mexico. It is one of the most valuable of furniture woods, but for engraving purposes it is but of little value, nevertheless it has been used for large, coarse subjects. Spanish mahogany is the kind which has been so used. Natural Order Ilicineae.
The tree itself, common here and in Guiana, is one of the true Forest Giants; we saw many a noble specimen of it in our rides. Its timber is tough, not over heavy, and extensively used already in the island; while its bark is a febrifuge and tonic. In fact it possesses all those qualities which make its brethren, the Meliaceae, valuable throughout the Tropics.
We were fortunate enough to make it first known as a new genus distinct from the cinchona, and belonging to the family of meliaceae, or of zanthoxylus. This salutary drug of South America was formerly attributed to the Brucea ferruginea which grows in Abyssinia, to the Magnolia glauca, and to the Magnolia plumieri.
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