ECATEA, Ecateia, and sceptres for their princes, of this wood. It was first brought to Rome by Pompey, after he subdued Mithridates. It is now much less used among us than anciently; since the discovery of so many ways of giving other hard woods a black colour.
As to the green ebony, besides Madagascar and St Maurice, it likewise grows in the Antilles, and especially in the isle of Tobago. The tree that yields it is very bushy; its leaves are smooth, and of a fine green colour. Beneath its bark is a white blea, about two inches thick; all beneath which, to the very heart, is a deep green, approaching towards a black, tho' sometimes streaked with yellow veins. Its use is not confined to mosaic work: it is likewise good in dyeing, as yielding a fine green tincture. As to red ebony, called also granadilla, we know little of it more than the name.
The cabinet-makers, inlayers, &c. make pear-tree and other woods pass for ebony, by giving them the black colour thereof. This some do by a few washes of a hot decoction of galls; and when dry, adding writing ink thereon, and polishing it with a stiff brush, and a little hot wax; and others heat or burn their wood black. See DYEING.