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
USS Laburnum (1864) in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, on blockade duty and assisting other ships of the squadron towing and acting as dispatch vessel. Such modest but vital service by ships contributed greatly to the effectiveness of the blockade which ultimately strangled the Confederacy and restored peace to the divided nation. On 15 February "Laburnum" captured a boat with seven men from blockade runner "Sylph" which had run aground on Sullivan’s Island while attempting to escape from Charleston and the tentacles of General W. T. Sherman’s army. Four days later, after the South had evacuated Charleston, "Laburnum" began removing obstructions between