Mr A. Galletly on certain Properties of Rosewood. 371 



On certain Properties of Rosewood and some other Hard 

 Woods. By A. Galletly, Museum of Science and 

 Art, Edinburgh. 



(Read 11th February 1886.) 



Brazilian rosewood appears to have been used in Europe 

 for making furniture for more than 200 years. For that 

 purpose it long stood next to mahogany in importance, but 

 though still much used, other woods have now an almost 

 equal hold on public favour. From an official return it 

 would seem that the quantity annually exported from 

 Brazil had increased from 560 tons in 1839 to 4700 tons 

 in 1874, the value of the latter being about £70,000. In 

 a book published in 1876 by the Government of Brazil, for 

 the purpose of giving reliable information respecting the 

 resources of the country, it is stated that rosewood exists 

 in great abundance in the forests of Pernambuco, Alagoas, 

 Bahia, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Geraes. 

 This official account of the plentiful supply of rosewood 

 does not, however, agree with the reports about it which 

 sometimes appear in English trade journals. But it is 

 probable that one species of tree furnishes the rosewood 

 usually sent from Brazil to England, while the statement 

 in the volume above-mentioned may refer to woods more 

 or less resembling each other from several species. 

 However this may be, it is very strange that the species of 

 tree which yields the Brazilian rosewood of commerce is 

 not known to European botanists. It is doubtful, indeed, 

 if even the genus has been correctly ascertained. We are 

 equally ignorant respecting a rosewood imported from 

 Honduras. Perhaps there is not another vegetable product, 

 of the same importance commercially, the source of which 

 has remained so long unknown to botanists. Many years 

 ago Dr Lindley considered the tree to be a species of 

 Mimosa, and subsequently believed it to belong to the 

 genus Triptolomea. At one time it had been called, 

 apparently on some authority, Mimosa jacarandd. It has 

 been commonly stated in English works on economic 

 botany that the commercial name for rosewood in Brazil is 

 "jacaranda;" but this name appears to be applied in that 



