Next to oak and fir, the foreign wood _Mahogany_ is by far the most valuable, and that most extensively used; it is the growth of the West Indies and South America, and the tree, the _Swietenia mahogani_, is, perhaps, the most majestic of all timber trees from the enormous dimensions to which its trunk attains, its vast height and size, and its dark beautiful foliage. The mahogany of the island of Cuba, and that from the bay of Honduras, is first in estimation. There are two East Indian species, but they are not imported in any quantities into this country. The best mahogany is that which grows in dry, cold, and exposed situations. Such wood is fine-grained, hard, and dark in colour, richly variegated, causing it from its beauty to rank among the most ornamental of fancy woods, while the light, coarse-grained wood, which grows in warm moist climates, is sufficiently abundant to be used for ordinary purposes, and yet possesses admirable properties for all, where no great strength or tenacity is wanted. Within the last twenty years the use of this wood has increased amazingly, and some ships have many of their upper timbers above the water-line constructed of Honduras mahogany. Its use in furniture and cabinet-making is well known, and, indeed, it may be said to be the principal wood used for this purpose, and to have entirely supplanted our own walnut, which was formerly in universal use for the same purposes. The woods above enumerated are those most extensively or largely used by the carpenter; but there are several others employed for small articles, and for particular purposes, which deserve mentioning. _Box_ is the wood of the _Buxus sempervirens_, a hardy evergreen plant, indigenous in all the southern parts of Europe and Western Asia, and long domesticated in our shrubberies. Box is especially the wood for turning, it being closer-grained, denser, and tougher than perhaps all others, except _iron-wood_, _Lignum Vitæ_, and one or two rarer woods. Box is used for rules, scales, and for small cabinet works; but that which gives it particular importance is its universal use for wood-engraving. _Lance_ is the name given to the wood of the _Guatteria virgata_, a tree indigenous to Jamaica, and one of the most important that are so, from the valuable qualities of its timber, lance-wood far exceeding our ash in lightness, strength, and elasticity; hence it is admirably calculated for shafts to carriages, handles to spears, and for all purposes where straight, light, flexible, and tough wood is required. It is neither so close-grained nor so hard as box, but it turns well, and does not split; in colour, it is lighter than box.