The Natural History of Mahogany
Swietenia macrophylla and S. humilis are referred to as Mahogany, a tropical evergreen or deciduous tree that can attain heights of 150 feet. Mahogany is a member of the Meliaceae, which includes other trees with notable wood for cabinet making. Swietenia macrophylla is world renowned for its beautifully grained, hard, red-brown wood. It has been harvested since 1500 A.D. for its wood, with large branches being in higher demand than the trunk. This is due to the closeness of the grain in the branch's wood. Mahogany is used for furniture, fixtures, musical instruments, millwork, cars, ships, boats, caskets, airplanes, foundry patterns, veneer, and plywood (Hill, 1952).
In Costa Rica, the only population of Mahogany exists in the Guanacaste-Puntarenas region where the tropical dry forests occur. Both of the species' ranges overlap in this region, with Bigleaf Mahogany, S. macrophylla, extending from the Bolivian Amazon up the Atlantic and Gulf Coast to Mexico, while Pacific Coast Mahogany, S. humilis, ranges from Mexico down the Pacific Coast to 9 degrees N in Costa Rica. The two species defy taxonomy and interbreed to form a hybrid. The hybrid grows quicker than either parent species, has intermediate characteristics, and high quality wood (Everett, 1982). Mahogany is never very abundant, even in undisturbed forests, with a density of only one tree per hectare. This, along with the destruction of tropical forests has added to the growing scarcity of Mahogany.
The normal habitat of S. macrophylla and S. humilis is lowland tropical or subtropical forest, with average annual rainfall totals between 1 and 2.5 meters. If the tree is in tropical moist or wet forests, it will lose its leaves briefly. However, in tropical dry forests, such as Guanacaste, the tree will be leafless for a few months. Mahogany has pinnately-compound leaves composed of 4 to 6, ovate-acuminate leaflets. The leaf is often without a terminal leaflet. The bark has vertical scales, giving it the appearance of Silver Maple or White Oak bark. The flowers are imperfect, with greater numbers of male than female flowers. Each flower is small, yellow-white, and borne in a panicle at the end of the dry season. The fruits of the Mahogany will ripen during January-March in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. They are 4 to 6 inch woody capsules which contain up to 40 wind-dispersed seeds, similar to those of an Ash tree.
Firstly, with Hickory Hollow is the disappearing crayfish in Ribbon Cave. This problem, it seems, is the result of heavy metals found in the water. The heavy metals were found at the site of Ribbon Cave, as well as the northern portion of Aram Creek. We tested for heavy metals at well sites G, I, L, M, and S for heavy metals, with the only positives being well sites I and L. Nevertheless, this still confirmed our theory. The heavy metals found in the water have most likely resulted from Compara Corp’s hazardous waste spills, a problem that has occurred multiple times. The heavy metals found in the water being lead, tin, copper, and ammonia would then be highly probable. To fix this problem the answer is simple, “The answer, according to the agency and an outside expert, is twofold: treatment and dilution” (Pappas, 1). Treating the water is simple: the water needs the acidity to be reduced. After that is done, you must dilute the water (add water to the creek). However, the problems will never fully go away, but they will be greatly decreased. In conclusion, in order to save the lives of the crayfish, Hickory Hollow must treat Aram Creek in order to strip the heavy metals.
Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata) and Pulp and Lumber Production. Introduction Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) is commercially one of the four most important conifers in the southeastern United States. In fact, shortleaf pine has the widest range of all southern pines, spreading from Florida to New Jersey and from North Carolina to Oklahoma. Sidney Investments, a firm based in Dallas, Texas, is considering the purchase of a 360-acre parcel of forested land located in the Quachita Mountains of eastern Oklahoma. This land has been under timber production through one rotation to this point.
Uncolonized North America was once inhabited by many organisms that have now become extinct. The extinction of these organisms can be blamed on the over harvesting of valuable resources or the introduction of foreign diseases from importation. One of these extinct organisms was the American chestnut. The American chestnut once inhabited the Eastern portion of North America from Maine to Florida. The great tree was once a dominant species that inhabited the Appalachian Mountains. The tree provided a staple diet to pre-colonized North American inhabitants and the immigrants of Europe. The great tree which dominated the overstory deciduous forest would soon meet its demise from a foreign invader by the mid- twentieth century.
The topic that we have been given for this assessment is a quite broad subject, because of this I am going to be narrowing this down to the ideas that Kurt Hahn and Sir James Darling brought forth to Geelong Grammar School Timbertop and how throughout the history of the Schools Campus the changes that have happened to the Outdoor and Experiential learning side. The thinking behind my decision to reduce the subject down to one single stream was to express my own op
A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel in which Gene, the main character, revisits his high school and his traumatic teen years. When Gene was a teen-ager his best friend and roommate Phineas (Finny) was the star athlete of the school.
...iendship between Gene and Phineas is amidst themes such as lack of reality, low maturity levels, and false appearances. Their relationship deteriorates and leads to death because they fail to learn these valuable life lessons. The purpose of Knowles’ novel is to exaggerate the life of two young boys to the extreme in order to reveal the unfortunate things that can occur in a relationship when these themes are not taken seriously. As stated in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, "It (A Separate Peace) can be viewed, for example, as a tale of Original Sin, with the Devon School as an Eden enclosing the great Tree of Knowledge through which humankind falls far from innocence but is redeemed by the suffering of a totally innocent one. It may also be approached as a reworking of the classic tale of the need to accept the potential evil within everyone and thus make peace with one’s self."
Government of the medieval society was impacted greatly by the rise of the church. As time passed after Jesus’s crucifiction, preaching’s of his heroic sacrifice for human’s sins intrigued many people including leaders from different places. “In the latter part of the Middle Ages, the pope, as head of the church, had much influence over the king and total control of the clergy” (The Middle Ages). Knowing the belief that common folk had in Christianity, many leaders seemed to take advantage or work with religious role models like popes, bishops, priests, etc. for ways of taking control of people or simply being crowned emperor. In 800, Charlemagne “was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day” (Charlemagne). The pope was appealed to Charlemagne (also known as Charles the Great) for protection against the Lombards. Though this appeared to be a mutual trade, it is interesting as to how Pope Leo III had the power to crown someone to be e...
(Minifie B.w, 1989) The cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) is a surprising tree, which is growed in certain constrained ranges and atmosphere conditions; it is a local of thick tropical timberlands of the Amazon where it develops in semi shade, and high modesty and it is accepted to have spread regularly westwards, and northwards to Guyana and Mexico then later headed to the Caribbean islands. (Morganelli A, 2006) the cocoa tree first develop in rainforests of south and focal America, Its first cultivator s from harvests to trees where the aged Mesoamerican and most cocoa trees are developed in spots close to the equator where the climate is constantly hot and wet. (Backett S.t, 2008) To be called ''...
The Portuguese began exploring Brazil’s Atlantic Coastal Plain in the early 1500s (Kent 236). In fact, colonization and settlement began in this region (Kent 237). The region quickly became the focus of colonization, and the countries first two settlements, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro were located on the plain. Today roughly 45 million Brazilians call the plain their home (Kent 236). During the early years of colonization, tropical broadleaf forests and brazilwood tree were extensively logged. The Brazilwood could be used as a rich red dye, which became the colony’s first significant export. However, by the end of colonial period, forests were largely nonexistent (Kent 237). This led the colonists to seek another alternative export which in this case was agriculture, especially sugarcane, cacao, and pasture (Kent 237).
The Great Gatsby is probably F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novel. This novel is an American classic and a facsinating evocative work that offers insightful views of the America during the 1920s. Fitzgerald, himself, seems to have had a brilliant understanding of lives that are corrupted by sadness and greed. The events in the novel are filtered through its narrator, Nick Carraway who is a young Yale university graduate, who is and is not part of the world he describes. After moving to New York, he rents a bungalow next door to the glorius mansion of a multi-millionare, Jay Gatsby.
The American Dream isn’t something that one certain type of person can accomplish, it’s something that anticipated and molded by each and every person in all situations and social classes. Gatsby’s dream was not the typical American Dream, his was based on a fantasy that one could relive the past, that if he worked hard and made enough lifestyle changes he could win Daisy from Tom. Gatsby went through a remarkable alteration when changing his name from James Gatz, the lonesome soldier, to Jay Gatsby, a man of mystery and fortune. This was Gatsby’s attempt to re-invent himself and achieve his goals; showing the just how blinded he actually was to reality. Gatsby’s whole dream can be focused around the green light that is at the end of Daisy’s dock. It symbolizes Daisy in every way it’s green like the color of money that he needs to obtain for Daisy to even see him; he can see it from his dock in West Egg it is just barely out of his reach across the bay just like Daisy. While on the other hand Tom and Daisy Buchana...
The rain forests are incredible places. They only cover 6 % of the world’s surface however they have more than ½ the world’s plant and animals species. A rain forest can be described as tall and thick jungles. There is a reason behind the forest being called a “Rain forest” and it is because the high rainfall it gets per year. On average, 50 to 260 inches of rain falls yearly. The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher than 34 ºC or drops below 20 ºC. The average humidity in a rainforest is between 77 to 88%. Rainfall is often more than 100 inches a year.
In 1520, Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan came upon the land we now know as Chile. With most of South America already under Spanish control, it was not a difficult task for the Spaniards to accomplish. In 1599, Spain had officially established Chile as a colony. During the early 1600s, Chile was mostly populated by Spanish colonists and indigenous peoples. With colonists from both Spain and other European countries, especially Germany and Italy, Chile was suddenly more diverse than ever. Trade flourished, the economy began to grow, and everything seemed to be perfect for the settlers. (Rector 3-5).
In some cases the church was more powerful than the king, since church had the power to excommunicate or to exclude from the communion of believers and from the privileges and public prayers of the church (Dictionary.com). For example, Henry the fourth, Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated from church by Pope Gregory the seventh. Harold the second, king of England was also excommunicated by Pope Alexander the second (Biography.com). It gave the Pope tremendous influence over the monarchies, and anyone who turned against him, would be excommunicated from church and were believe to go to...
Fossil records are unable to provide information of on the center of origins of the cacao tree. The cacao tree is in the Sterculiaceae family. The first growers of the cacao pods were probably the people who entered the lowland rain forests of the Amazon Basin between 10,000 and 200 B.P. The full name of the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao. Most of the information of the cacao have been derived from the cultivated crop. The life and reproduction life cycle of Theobroma cacao is identical to a tropical rain forest tree species. Cacao grows optimally in minimal moisture and shade. Cacao is dispersed in small, medium and large areas. This is probably the result of animal dropping the seeds after eating the tasty inside of the pods. Cacao pods are very diverse in morphology. These morphological difference suggests genetic differentiation.