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) USS Laburnum (1864) USS "Laburnum" (1864) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a tugboat and dispatch boat to serve Union ships on blockade duty. "Lion", a screw tug built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1864, was purchased by the Navy 24 June 1864, renamed "Laburnum", and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 7 July 1864, Acting Master A. A. Owens in command. The new tug joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Port Royal, South Carolina, 17 July 1864. For the remainder of the Civil War she operated