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Ehony and Its Imitations 



Tlie blaok keys of pianos are sometimes made of ebony. It forms 

 parts of many other musical instruments, handles for small tools, 

 and novelties of many kinds. It is persimmon wood but not the 

 species found in the United States. It comes from Ceylon, Mad- 

 agascar, Africa's east coast, and from other tropical countries. It 

 is of many colors, ranging from jet black to brown and green. The 

 blacker it is, the more valuable. Two thousand years before the 

 days of Abraham the Egyptians were cutting ebony under the 

 equator on the east coast of Africa and shipping it to furniture 

 makers in Egypt. Some of that furniture is in existence today. 



The cost of ebony tempts counterfeiters to imitate it. The most 

 common imitation in this country is holly. It is worthy of note 

 that one of the whitest woods in the world should be chosen to imitate 

 one of the blackest. The holly is boiled in hatter's dye and becomes 

 so black that no one suspects the counterfeit if he judges by 

 the color alone. The fine grain of holly contributes to the decep- 

 tion, but the weight gives the secret away. Ebony is twice as heavy 

 as holly. This imitation is often employed in making billiard cues 

 and in other inlay work where the weight is not taken into con- 

 sideration. 



In Europe one of the most common imitations of ebony is prepared 

 from the wood of fruit trees, preferably i]ear. It is dyed in much 

 the same way as holly, and it takes a line polish which closely re- 

 sembles ebony. 



Other imitations are numerous. ' They are found in tropical 

 America and in the tropical countries of the East. Of late a timber 

 from Africa, called wat-wood, has been mentioned as a successful 

 substitute for ebony; but the wood appears not to be mentioned 

 under that name in any of the standard books on commercial timbers, 

 and its botany is uncertain. 



Even the United States has a candidate for favor as an imitation 

 of ebony. It grows along the Rio Grande, and the people in that 

 region like to have it called Texas ebonv. It is little kin to real 



ebony, but is a locust tree, and a denizen of the jungles of mesquite, 

 huisaehe, devil claw and other thorny brambles which cover the hills 

 and ravines of southwestern Texas. It is known to botanists as 

 Zygia flexicaulis. Efforts to put it on the market as ebony have 

 not been successful, for the probable reason that its color is unsatis- 

 factory. Some parts of the trunk may be as black as ink, but there 

 are stripes and zones of wood as yellow as bodark or as brown as 

 walnut, and it is not easy to cut out the black pieces in shapes and 

 sizes suitable for uses in cabinet making. 



The railroads in that legion cut the wood for ties, and as far as 

 it may be judged by experience, it will last forever. No one ever 

 saw a rotten railroad tie of this wood. Worms devour the sapwood, 

 which is yellow ;iiiil half an inch thick, but they can make no im- 

 pression on the licnrtwdod, and it becomes harder the longer it is 



Texas ebony is valuable as fuel. It is at its best under the boilers 

 in the cane-grinding mills near Brownsville; but it is not popular 

 as stove wood because it is said to generate so hot a blaze that the 

 stove is burnt out. The damage to the stove is probably not due so 

 much to the extreme heat developed by combustion as to the acid 

 set free in process of burning. When the northers come down across 

 the plains and send shivers through the thin-blooded Texans along 

 the Rio Grande, the fireplaces are piled with ebony and the red 

 blazes make their presence felt, while the odor contains a strong and 

 not wholly pleasant suggestion of burning leather. 



Accounts have been published recently of artificial ebony which 

 is said to be meeting requirements fairly well in some instances, 

 but it must face failure in others. It is manufactured by mixing 

 sawdust and blood and subjecting the mass to enormous pressure. 

 The color might be all right, and possibly the weight and polishing 

 properties may be satisfactory, but the strength ought to be thor- 

 oughly tried out before the composition is accepted for situations 

 where great strength is required. 



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iiPi Gum Trees of the United States 



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There are at least nine kinds of trees in the United States which 

 are called gum in some parts of their ranges. The eucalypts of 

 California and Florida are not included, because they are not native 

 in this country. 



It may be considered that four of these are entitled to the name, 

 while five are not. As for the general public, however, there is 

 only one true gum tree, the others being scarce and of little 

 importance. The nine which are sometimes called gum are the 

 following: 



Red or sweet gum (Liqiiidamhar sltiraciflua), a tree of the southern 

 states and extending north in the Atlantic region to Connecticut and 

 New York. 



Gum elastic (Bumelia lanuginosa), a tree in most parts of the south 

 from Georgia to Texas, reaching its highest development in the latter 

 state. 



Gum eleml or gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba), occurring in the United 

 States only in southern Florida. 



Doctor gum or poisonwood (Rhus metopium), a tree whose range in this 

 country is confined to southern Florida. 



Sour gum or sourwood (Oxydendrum aihoreum). This species is found 

 from Pennsylvania southward, and west to Louisiana and Arkansas. 



Black gum (h'yssa sylratica), growing from Maine to Florida and west- 

 ward beyond the Mississippi. 



Water gum (Nyssa biflora) occurs in the southeastern part of the United 

 States, as far north as Maryland. 



Ogechee gum or sour tupelo (Nyssa ogechej is found in South Carolina, 

 Georgia and Florida. 



Cotton gum or tupelo gum (Xyssa aquatica) is the common tupelo of the 

 southern states. 



Why Named 



The first four trees in the above list bear their names because 



they exude a resin or gum from injured bark or freshly cut wood; 

 while the remaining five appear to have no just right to carry their 

 names. 



Doctor gum, sometimes called hog gum, supplies resin from the 

 bark. This is collected without the process of cutting the bark or 

 wounding the wood. It is used in medicine. 



Gum elemi yields an aromatic resin from incisions in the bark. 

 It was once a gout rememdy in the West India islands, but now 

 goes to manufacturers of varnish. 



Gum elastic is called "gum stretehit" by children of north- 

 ern Texas, who gather the ripe berries to mix with chewing gum 

 "to make it go farther." The original name was probably not 

 applied on account of the berries but because the freshly-cut wood 

 exudes a clear, viscid gum. 



Red or sweet gum was named on account of gum produced in the 

 South bv wounding the bark or by peeling the trunk entirely. 

 That was the origin of the term sweet gum. The name red gum 

 is applied, in most instances, because the heartwood is of a red- 

 dish color. 



The five other trees which are known in some localities as gum 

 appear to have received their names through various misunder- 

 standings. The trunks of the three southern tupeloes look much 

 like that of red gum, and it is probable that persons who sup- 

 posed them to be the same, or nearly the same, started the custom 

 of calling them gu-m, with various descriptive adjectives. This, 

 however, is coujeeture only, but is founded on probability. 



Black gum 's trunk does not look much like the other tupeloes. 



