VEGETABLE AND IMITATION IVORY
The beauties
of genuine ivory are such, and they are now so highly and generally
appreciated, that even articles made of imitation ivory are sold in
great quantities. This is known under various trade names, as "Parisian
ivory," "French ivory," "Egyptian ivory," and "ivorloid." A favourite
modern use is for clocks, some of which are provided with an electric
flashlight, the apparatus being so disposed in a funnel slanting toward
the clock face that when a button is pressed the dial is brightly
illuminated, enabling any one to see immediately the time when in an
entirely dark room.
The tagua palm, as the natives of Ecuador call the Phytelephas macrocarpa, was
first brought to popular notice about fifty years ago by some rubber
gatherers, who, in carrying on their work in the forests of northern
Ecuador, had come across an unfamiliar species of palm, having as fruit
a nut in whose shape they saw a grotesque resemblance to a negro's
head, and hence called the nuts negritos. Having picked up,
dried out, and broken open some of them, they noted that the kernels
bore a close resemblance to ivory, and the idea quickly suggested
itself that they might be used as a cheap substitute for the costly,
genuine material. To test the value of the nuts some were shipped to
Europe; and although at first they were not received with much favour,
their excellent qualities soon became ap-
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