Laburnum musical instruments. In addition to such wind instruments as recorders and flutes, it was a popular wood for Great Highland Bagpipes before taste turned to imported dense tropical hardwoods such as "Brya ebenus" (cocus wood), ebony, and "Dalbergia melanoxylon" (African monkeywood). The heart-wood of a laburnum may be used as a substitute for ebony or rosewood. It is very hard and a dark chocolate brown, with a butter-yellow sapwood. "Laburnum" species and hybrids are cultivated as ornamental trees for gardens and parks. They are also trained as espaliers on pergolas, for ceilings of pendant flowers in season. In its natural
HMS Laburnum (1915) the Easter Rising, an armed rebellion by Irish republicans against British rule, began. "Laburnum" was ordered to Galway to defend the port on 25 April, arriving there on 26 April. On hearing reports that a group of rebels were advancing on the port, the Captain of "Laburnum" ordered her to open fire, with 10 shells being fired in the direction of the rebels and at a road on the outskirts of the city. On 28 April, "Laburnum" escorted a transport carrying troops to Galway. On 8 February 1917, the passenger steamer was torpedoed by the German submarine WSW of Fastnet