Ebont

The Arab, name for this wood is very near the Heb., being ebnUs. There can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of the wood intended in the single passage in which it is mentioned (Ezk 27"). It was brought to Tyre by merchants from Dedan, on the Pers. Gulf. It is the black heart-wood of Diospyros Ehcntim, L., and several other species of the same genus, trees growing to a large size in Ceylon and S. India. D. Ebenum, however, furnishes the best wood.

It resembles the common and the Japanese pemmmon in its mode of growth and inflorescence, and in bearing an edible fruit, between a pome and a berry. The sap-wood is white and valueless, but the heart often yields a log 2 ft. in diameter, and 10 to 15 ft. long. G. E. Post.