ROSEWOOD.
Like to ironwood, blackwood, redwood, etc., rosewood is it cominercial term given to the thnbers of several trees. Those nsed in Britain aro pro duced in the Brazils, the Canary Islea, the East Indies, and Africa. They aro imported in very large slabs, or the halves of trees, which average 18 inches wide. The best is from Rio do Janeiro (Dalbergia, sp.), the second quality from Bahia, and tho commonest from the East Indies; the last is called East India blackwood, although it happens to be the lightest and most red-coloured of the three ; it is devoid of the powerful smell of the truo rosewood, which latter Dr. Lindley considers to be from a species of mimosa. The porea of the East India rosewood appear to contain less or nono of the resinoue matter froua which the odour, like that of the flower of Acacia armata, arises. One of the rosewoods contains so much gum and oil, that small splinters make excellent matches. The colours of rosewood are front light hazel to deep purple, or nearly black ; the tints are some times abruptly contrasted, at other times striped or nearly uniform. The wood is very heavy ; some specimens are close and fine in the grain, whereas others are a.s open as coarse mahogany, or rather are more abundant in veins. The black streaks aro sometimes particularly hard, and very destructive to the tools employed on it. Next to mahogany, it is in England the rnost abundant of the furniture woods. A large quantity is cut into veneers for upholstery and cabinet work, and solid piece,s are used for the same purposes, and for a great variety of turned articles of ordinary consumption. Mr. Poole, in his Statistics of Commerce, describes it as a highly-esteemed, dark brown coloured fancy wood, principally used in veneering and making costly furniture. That de
livered in England, he says, is imported chiefly from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, into London aucl Liverpool. It is in the form of the halves of trees averaging 18 inches wide, and in weight 2i cwt., called planks, of which the import in 1851 waa 2000 tons. Price, ordinarily, £9 to £19, but rising occasionally to £90 per ton. The rosewood of the Tenasserim Provinces is a very beautiful, hard, compact timber, resembling Andaman wood, and is occasionally seen in the bazar of Calcutta. From Siam and other places, a rosewood is largely exported by the Chinese. These wooda are gener ally esteemed according to the degree in which the darker parts are distinct from the purple red, which form the ground. One rosewood was called Lignum Rhodium, Aspalathus, whence the Oleum Rhodii is obtained ; heavy, oleaginous, somewhat sharp and bitter to the taste, of a strong smell, and purple colour. The Chinese rosewood, called Tze-tau, is odorons, of a red dish-black colour, streaked, and full of fine veins, which appear as if painted. The manu factures of this wood are more valued in China than the varnished or japanned. There aro baser kinds of rosewood of inferior value. East Indian blackwood or rosewood, from the Dalbergia lati folia and D. sissoides, is an excellent heavy wood, suited for the best furniture. It can be procured in large quantities, and of considerable size ; the wood containa much oil. In largo panels it is liable to split.—Faulloner ; Morrison's Compendiout Description ; .711. E. Jr. Rep. ; Mason's Tenasserim , Holtzapfel ; Poole's St. of Commerce ; M'Cul. loch.