544 
FOXWORTHY. 
The following species also produce good wood: 
Diospyros malacapai A. DC. Wood yellow with black spots. Philippines. 
D. pilosanthera Blanco. Ornamental wood. 
U. pilasa A. DC. Timber fit for building purposes. Cochin China. 
D. cliloroxylon Roxb. Wood pale. C'ircars. India. 
D. foliosa Wall. Valuable light-colored wood. Southern India. 
D. lanceaefolia Roxb. Hard and handsome wood. East Indies. 
Calamander or Coromandel wood, a Finely variegated and scarce wood, 
is produced by D. quaesita Thw. and by D. oppositifolia Thw. 
Anchors for large boats are made, in the Province of Tavoy in Burmah, 
of the wood of Mciba buxifolia. Pers. 
Those species which produce a mottled or streaked wood are really 
much more beautiful than the dead black ebony, but 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 box or pear wood and sell them for ebony. The fine, even grain of- 
these woods makes them well suited for this purpose. They are usually 
lighter in weight than the true ebony and the color given them is 
usually only superficial. 
In the Philippines, it is said that camagon, bolongeta and other native 
ebonies, which are only streaked with the black heartwood may be 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 
statement, but it sounds reasonable. I think that the method indicated 
or the application of certain chemicals may be successfully used to 
produce a good even black heartwood. This would, in reality, be merely 
a hastening of the normal process of heartwood formation and it should 
produce a very good ebony. Experiments are in progress to determine 
the feasibility of this scheme. 
Uses of ebony. — Ebony is employed to make pianoforte keys, the 
stringholder in violins, spear-points, fine furniture and cabinet work, 
canes, inlaying ; and the best kind of ebony is very valuable on account 
of its maintaining a permanent shape and not warping, and is therefore 
used 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. 
Blacl • 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. The sapwood is white and the heartwood very sharply 
marked off from. it. This is a very satisfactory ebony, but it is of 
