A few facts will furnish a tolerably distinct idea of the size of this splendid tree. The mahogany lumbermen, having selected a tree, surround it with a platform about twelve feet above the ground, and cut it above the platform. Some twelve or fifteen feet of the largest part of the trunk are thus lost. Yet a single log not unfrequently weighs from six or seven to fifteen tons, and sometimes measures as much as seventeen feet in length and four and a half to five and a half feet in diameter, one tree furnishing two, three, or four such logs. Some trees have yielded 12,000 superficial feet, and at average price pieces have sold for $15,000. Messrs. Broadwood London, pianoforte manufacturers, paid £3,000 for three logs, all cut from one tree, and each about fifteen feet long and more than three feet square. The tree is cut at two seasons of the year--in the autumn and about Christmas time. The trunk, of course, furnishes timber of the largest dimensions, but that from the branches is preferred for ornamental purposes, owing to its closer grain and more variegated color. In low and damp soil its growth is rapid; but the most valuable trees grow slowly among rocks on sterile soil, and seem to gather compactness and beauty from the very struggle which they make for an existence. In the Bahamas, in the most desolate regions, once flourished that curiously veined and much esteemed variety once known in Europe as "Madeira wood," but which has long since been exterminated. Jamaica, also, which used to be a fruitful source of mahogany, and whence in 1753 not less than 521,000 feet were shipped, is now almost depleted. That which is now furnished from there is very inferior, pale, and porous, and is less esteemed than that of Cuba, San Domingo, or Honduras.