THE CUBA REVIEW 11 



GREEN EBONY OR COCUS WOOD 



Green ebony is a confusing term. It is one of the trade names given to a wood that bears 

 no relation to the true ebony of commerce. Green ebony belongs to the bean family, and is 

 closely allied to our black locust, while the true ebony is practically the same as our persimmon, 

 a member of an entirely different family of plants. Like many other woods of great commer- 

 cial importance, the botanical source of green ebony remained unknown for a long time after 

 its introduction into the Eiu'opean and American markets. Swartz first described the tree 

 botanically in 175i5, and named it ADierimnon ebenus, but later the celebrated French botanist, 

 De CandoUe, referred it to the genus Brija. Botanists have now accepted the name Brya 

 ebenus. The name Brya is from bryo, meaning to sprout, so named on account of the germi- 

 nation of the seed commencing while on the tree, and the specific name ebenus means ebony, 

 alluding to the hard and dark-colored wood, which resembles somewhat the true ebony. 



In the trade, the wood is known also as brown or West Indian ebony, coco, cocus, cocas, cocos 

 cocoa, grandilla, torchwood, and less often as greenheart ebony. Green ebony is the term 

 now in general use, though greenheart ebony is perhaps more api)ropriate, because it is only 

 the heart wood of this tree that is dark green. The origin of the name cocos, is not definitely 

 known, though there are some who say that it is an abbreviated form of the words cocoloba 

 and cocobola. These writers Ukewise argue that cocobola is a mere corruption of the term 

 cocoloba, which is the name of a small tree growing in southern Florida and tiie ^\'est Indies. 

 While such an abbreviation and corruption might seem plausible to the uninformed, this is 

 far from being the case, for the cocos, cocobola, and cocoloba are now known to be three en- 

 tirely distinct trees and can not be easily confused. 



It is very probable that the name cocas, or cocoa, as it was originally spelled, was derived 

 from kokra, the name of an Indian tree botanically known as Aporosa dioica. This tree, 

 which grows chiefly in the province of Bengal, India, and in British Burma, yields a wood 

 that closely resembles the so-called cocos wood of the West Indies. Kola-a was occasionally 

 imported into England before green ebony, and naturally, when the West Indian product 

 first arrived in London chiefly as dunnage, it was called koki'a, wliich was soon corrupted 

 into cocoa and later into cocos. Granadilla is the Spanish American name applied to this 

 tree, but it should not be confused wdth the well-known granadilla or African black wood 

 {Dalberyia nielnnoxylon) oi tropical Africa, a timber now highly prized in Germany for making 

 walking sticks and as a substitute for ebony generally. Torchwood is another local name 

 for green ebony, because the wood possesses a good deal of oily or resinous substance and is 

 said to burn like a torch. 



Green ebony is a well known tree and grows relatively abundantly on all of the islands 

 of the West Indies and on the mainland from Tampico in Mexico southward to Colombia 

 and Venezuela. It is most abimdant in Cuba and Jamaica. There is very little of it left 

 in Porto Rico. Haiti and Santo Domingo may have a good deal of this wood, but there is 

 no authentic information in reference to its occurrence and distribution on this island. Little 

 is known in regai'd to the distribution of green ebony in Mexico and Central America, but 

 undoubtedly a good deal of this valuable timber can be made available in southern Mexico 

 alone. The forests of Panama and Costa Rico have been pretty thoroughly culled of the 

 best trees. Colombia still has vast areas where green ebony has never been cut. 



The gi'een ebony tree is usually small, seldom over 50 feet high and about IS inches through 

 near the base. Like that of the logwood and a number of other closely allied trees, the trunk 

 is short and somewhat fluted, supporting a relatively large and somewhat spreading, open 

 crown. The branches are slender and often drooping, the twigs have many small spines 

 and smaU pinnately-winged leaflets. The tree can be readily distinguished by these characters 

 in the forest. The clear length of the bole is rarely over 12 or 15 feet and is usually more or 

 less crooked. Similar to all trees wdth hard wood, green ebony grows very slowh^, even in 

 the open. It is beheved that trees 8 inches in diameter are over 100 years old. 



The heartwood, which is the only portion used varies from a light yellowish brown, streaked, 

 when fh-st cut, with hazel and darker brown, but upon drying, changes to a deep brown or 

 sometimes almost black; the sap wood is thick, of the color of beech wood, and is covered 

 with a tliin. rather rough bark. The wood is very hard, heavy, strong, tough, durable, very 

 closely-grained and susceptible of a high polish. It contains a water-insoluble resin, which 

 renders the wood so durable and inflammable; the Indians use the wood for burning as torches, 

 and it is, therefore, called torchwood by the natives. Its great strength, toughness and 

 elasticity make it suitable for riding whips and walking sticks. Although the wood is hard, 

 it can be worked with moderate ease, and being usually straight-grained, splits readily. After 

 thorough seasoning, the wood seldom shrinks or warps. 



Green ebony has been exported from many parts of tropical America from the earliest 

 times and is now found in all the important lumber markets in Europe and in the L'nited States. 

 It is imported in the form of rough logs from 2 to 18 inches in diameter and from 4 to 10 feet 

 long. Although the bark and sap are never used, they are not removed before shipment, 

 because the heartwood is said to season more uniformly in this condition. The bulk of the 



