Acacia.—Africa, Australia, and generally throughout the warmer regions of the globe. The 550 species of acacia include several valuable timber woods, among them the Australian blackwood and acacia koa (see Koa) of the Sandwich Islands. Acacia was used as a furniture wood in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles more than 1,200 years ago.
Amaranth.—Chiefly from British Guiana, South America. Also known as purpleheart tree and violet wood. It is of fair size; wood heavy, hard, and of a deep purple color not fast to light; used in marquetry embellishment of Louis XV furniture, and still popular in fine furniture.
Amboyna.—East Indies, Malay Archipelago. (Also spelled Amboina, from the island of that name, Dutch East Indies.) This beautifully figured and mottled wood has much the color of satinwood. Amboyna burl, so-called, comes from the padouk tree. (See Padouk.) It is a rich golden yellow, shot with brilliant red, and is one of the most costly woods in the world.
Apple.—The fruit wood, used in Elizabethan England and since, as an inlay.
Ash.—Europe, Asia, and North America. A large, widely distributed group related to the olive family. There are 20 species in North America, ranging from desert shrubs to the magnificent white ash of the lower Ohio valley. The wood is markedly ring-porous, and when skillfully finished is very handsome, either plain or quarter-sawed. Varieties commonly used for veneer are figured trees of American white ash, English, Australian, and Japanese ash, the latter known as "tamo." Color ranges from grayish white to nut brown in tamo; a small fiddle or peanut figure is characteristic.
Aspen.—Chiefly from Maryland and the Appalachian Mountains. (Also known as silver poplar.) Large trees, yielding some figured logs having a characteristic small block mottle figure. The wood is of light-straw color with some light-brown streaks, and takes a beautiful finish.
Avodire.—West coast of Africa, near the equator. A creamy colored wood, yielding a handsome figure in crotch or quarter-sliced veneers.
Ayous.—West coast of Africa. Cream-colored wood of a slight greenish tinge; resembles prima vera in appearance, and because of its low cost is sometimes used as a substitute for blond woods.
Basswood.—North America. (Also known as linden and whitewood.) This tree, which belongs to the lime family, has a wood of cream-white color, almost free from visible markings due to pores, annual rings, or rays. In furniture manufacture it is used for plywood cores and kitchen table tops to be left unfinished.
Beech.—Europe, Asia Minor, and eastern North America. Of the same genus as the oak and the chestnut, this tree yields furniture wood of light reddish-brown color. It has about the same weight and hardness as sugar maple.