BRAZIL WOOD

a kind of wood yielding a red a dye, obtained from several trees of tiie genua Csesal* pinia, natives of the West Indies and Central and South America. The best kind, Cctaalpinia eckhuUa^ is foimd in the greatest abundance in the provinoe of Pemambuco, in Brazil, where it is called poo da^ rainhOf or queen's wood. The tree is large, crooked, and knotty; the leaves are of a beaut i£il red, and exhale an agreeable odour. Other kinds are C*. BnuUtensitf C. critta, and C, Sappan^ or the 8app«n wood of the East Indies. The bark is so thick thmJL a tree as large as a man's body with the bark, will a not be so thick as tiie leg when peeled. It is pale in colour when first cut, but becomes darker when ex* posed. The wood is hard and heavy, and as it take* on a fine polish, it is used by cabinet-makers for various purposes, but its principal use is in dyeing nod. The dye is obtained by reducing the wood to powder and boiling it in water, when the water receives the red colouring principle, which is a crystallizable substance called brazUin. Hie colour is not permanent unle fixed by suitable mordants. Brazil wood has been for many years past a royal monopoly; its exportation, except on account of government, being prohibited. The quantity of Bnuil wood imported into this country is but inconsiderable. It has been shown that the term Brazil wood was applied to an East Indian dyewood long before the discovery of Brazil, which therefore, no doubt, derived its name from producing such trees in abundance. 358