544 POXWOBTHT. 



rhe following species also produce good wood: 



Dioapyrat malaoapai A. DC. Wood yellow with black spots. Philippines. 



It. piloaantkera Blanco. Ornamental wood. 



It. pitaN A. I)c. Timber lii for building purposes. Cochin China. 



It. vKloroayton Roxb. Wood pal.-. Circars, India. 



I), foliosa Wall. Valuable light-colored wood. Southern India. 



ft. lanceaefolia Roxb. Hard and handsome wood. East Indies. 



Calamander or Coromande] woo*!. a finely variegated and scarce wood, 

 is produced by D. quaesita Thw. and by I), oppositifolia Thw. 

 Anchors for large boats are made, in the Province of Tavoy in Burmah, 



of the wood of Maba buxifolia Pers. 



Those species which produce a mottled or streaked wood are really 

 much more beautiful than the dead black ebony, bui this latter is 

 usually more in demand. 



Artificial ebony. — Local dealers often use various artificial means to 



produce an even black color. European dealers sometimes dye pieces 



of bos or pear wood and sell them for ebony. The line, even grain of 



these woods makes I hem well suited for this purpose. They are usually 



lighter in weight than the true ebony and the color given them is 

 usually only superficial. 



Li the Philippines, it is said that camagon, bolongeta and other native 

 ebonies, which are only streaked with the Mack neartwood may he colored 

 uniformly black by being buried for some months in the salt mud of 

 the mangrove swamp. I can not vouch for the correctness of this 

 Btatement, hut it sounds reasonable. I think that the method indicated 

 or the application of certain chemicals may he successfully u>vi\ to 

 produce a good even black heartwood. Tins would, in reality, he merely 

 a hastening of the norma] process of heartwood formation and it should 

 produce a \erv good ebony. Experiments are in progress to determine 

 I lie feasibility of this scheme. 



' ses <>}' Bbony. — Ebony is employed to make pianoforte keys, the 

 Btringholder in violins, spear-points, fine furniture and cabinet work. 

 canes, inlaying; and the besl kind of ebony is very valuable on account 

 of its maintaining a permanent shape and not warping, and is therefore 

 \i>n\ for rules and measures. This freedom from shrinking and warping 

 is probably due to the fact that the wood is very fine-grained and all 

 the elements of the wood are filled up with a homogeneous substance 

 which is probably some combination of an iron salt with a tannic acid. 



CLASSIFICATION OF PHILIPPINE EBONIES. 



Philippine ebonies are black, streaked or dull-grayish in color. 



Black ebonies. — These have heartwood of a uniform dead black. They 

 are known as ebano or ata-ata. Ebano is usually produced by Maba 

 buxifolia Pers. Tin' Bapwood is white and the heartwood very sharply 



marked oil' from it. This is a very satisfactory ebony, hut it is of 



