Page 950 : IVORY COAST, FRENCH — IVY
Individual articles:
poses as true ivory. Some of these are the walrus, narwhal, hippopotamus and rhinoceros. The ivory of the tusks of the African elephant is held in the highest estimation by the manufacturer, on account of its pure whiteness and its density. The tusks are of all sizes, from a few ounces in weight to more than 180 pounds each. Some have been known to weigh as much as 200 pounds. Elephant tusks have from very early periods been an important article of trade, because of their great beauty as material for ornaments and in works of fine art. A small part of the ivory of commerce comes from Ceylon, India, Burma and the islands of the Indian archipelago. The greater part is obtained from the African elephants, and the traffic in ivory was the main support of the slave trade in that country. Fossil ivory is found in small quantities in Siberia, being the tusks of the extinct mammoth. The price of pure ivory is from about $250 to $300 per hundredweight. The quantity imported each year into Europe is about 12,500 hundredweight, which must require the sacrifice of nearly 40,000 elephants. The elephants are killed in the interior of Africa, and the ivory conveyed to the coast (formerly) on the backs of slaves. Ivory is in chief demand for knife and other handles, combs, piano keys, billiard balls and chess-men, and is carved into figures and ornaments. The use of ivory can be traced almost to the earliest period when man existed. We read that King Solomon “made a great throne of ivory.” There still exist examples of Egyptian ivory, inlaid, as ancient as the days of Moses. In the British Museum are many Assyrian ivory carvings, made in Nineveh nearly 1,000 years before Christ. In ancient Greece ivory was used for carvings, sculpture and various objects of luxury. Many of the most famous works of Pheidias and his fellow artists were statues built of plates of ivory and gold, some figures being 40 feet in height.
I′vory Coast, French. A dependency of France in Africa, acquired in 1843, but not actively and continuously occupied till 1883. It lies between Liberia and the Gold Coast colony of Great Britain in French West Africa. Area 12,000 square miles, with a population estimated at two millions. It extends inland from the coast to the military territory in French Sudan. The chief exports are palm oil, india-rubber and gold. Coffee and rice are also cultivated. The capital and chief port is Grand Bassam, while the seat of administration is now Bingerville. This place was formerly called Adjame, and is being improved by extensive building operations, and gold mining is assuming importance. The harbor works at Port Bouet, formerly Petit Bassam, are begun, and the railway from Abijean on the other side of the lagoon will have its first stretch of no miles to Eryman Konguié finished in 1908. Telegraph lines run between the principal towns, and the telephone is in operation from Bassam to Bingerville and elsewhere. The colony is self-supporting, income and outgo in 1911 being about 5,474,000 francs.
Ivory, Vegetable. This curious material is furnished by a palm-like plant, which grows on the Andean plains of Peru, on the banks of the Magdalena and in other parts of South America. It forms the type of a natural order of plants, intermediate between the palms and the screw pines. The plant throws up a magnificent tuft of light-green, pinnated leaves of extraordinary size and beauty, like immense ostrich-feathers rising from 30 to 40 feet in height. The fruit, which is as large as a man’s head, consists of many, four-celled, leathery drupes massed together, and contains numerous nuts of a somewhat triangular form, each nut being nearly as large as a hen’s egg; they are called corozonuts in commerce. The kernels of these nuts when ripe are exceedingly hard and white; in fact, they resemble ivory so completely that few names have ever been better applied than that of vegetable ivory. They are in extensive use by turners in the manufacture of such articles as buttons, umbrella handles and small trinkets.
Ivy, a name applied to a variety of woody plants which have the habit of climbing by means of sucker-like discs, so that they can attach themselves to walls and other vertical surfaces. This habit makes the plants valuable in connection with the covering and ornamenting of walls, houses, churches etc. The common European ivy is Hedera helix, which belongs to the aralia family. It is evergreen, with entire or three-to-five lobed leaves and usually black berries. It is an exeeedingly variable species, and more than 60 species have been cultivated in European gardens. The American ivy or woodbine is a species of Ampelopsis, a genus which belongs to the grape family. It is a much more rapid-growing vine than the English ivy, and its leaves color bright scarlet in autumn. About 20 species are known in North America and
Image: IVY, SHOWING THE AERIAL ROOTLETS
