[Crown Copyright Reserved. 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 9] | (1916 
XL.—BRAZIL-WOOD. 
J. H. Houbanp. 
The Brazil-wood of the xivth-xvth century was obtained from 
the East—India, Malaya, Ceylon, &c., and the tree producing 
it may therefore be properly attributed to Caesalpinia Sappan, 
the only dye-wood that would seem to fit the earlier descriptions. 
But it cannot be taken as conclusive that this was the only 
‘brazil’? of the period, since Marco Polo, who travelled in the 
East about 1260, in his description of Lambri* remarks, ‘‘ They 
have plenty of camphor and of all sorts of other spices; they have 
also ‘brazil’ in great quantities. This they sow, and when it is 
grown to the size of a small shoot they take it up and transplant 
it; then they let it grow for three years, after which they tear 
it up by the root. You must know that Messer Marco Polo afore- 
said brought some seed of the ‘ brazil,’ such as they sow, to 
Venice with him, and had it sown there, but never a thing 
because the climate was too cold.”’ 
known as ‘‘ Al,’’ crown under similar 
day, though the cultivation is almost if not entirely abandoned 
as an industry, since the introduction of aniline dyes. It is a 
small tree that may be treated as a biennial or triennial as above 
recorded.t ‘That the same traveller had some knowledge of 
another “ brazil’? is clear when he says, “‘ When you leave the 
island of Java (the less) and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail 
north about 150 miles and then you come to two islands, one 
of which is called Necuveran (Nicobars of the present day). 
-.. Their woods are all of noble and valuable kinds of trees, 
such as ‘Red Sanders’ and ‘Indian-nut’ and * Cloves. and 
‘ Brazil,’ and sundry other good spices.”’§ Again, according to 
Yule,| the Brazil wood of Kaulam (Malabar) appears in the 
Commercial Handbook of Pegolotti (circa 1340) as ‘* Verzino 
* Yule (1871), Travels of Marco Polo, ii. p. 241. Lambri is believed to be 
NW. of Su t 
t Ven kljo smadandencitonds Gaertn. and Oldenlandia umbellata, Linn., both 
ng a red dye may perhaps also be suggested. 
c 
t 
roots yieldi 
t ule, Le. p. 249. 
Le. p. 248, || Le. p. 315. 
