The tree is both wild and cultivated, and is
grown rather extensively by the Mahomedans of Malabar, called Moplahs
(Mapillas, see p. 372), whose custom it is to plant a number of seeds at
the birth of a daughter. The trees require fourteen or fifteen years to
come to maturity, and then become the girl's dowry.
Though to a great extent superseded by the kindred wood from Pernambuco,
the sappan is still a substantial object of importation into England. That
American dye-stuff which now bears the name of brazil-wood is believed
to be the produce of at least two species of Caesalpinia, but the question
seems to partake of the singular obscurity which hangs over the origin of
so many useful drugs and dye-stuffs. The variety called Braziletto is
from C. bahamensis, a native of the Bahamas.
The name of Brazil has had a curious history. Etymologists refer it to the
colour of braise or hot coals, and its first application was to this
dye-wood from the far East. Then it was applied to a newly-discovered tract
of South America, perhaps because producing a kindred dye-wood in large
quantities: finally the original wood is robbed of its name, which is
monopolised by that imported from the new country. The Region of Brazil had
been originally styled Santa Cruz, and De Barros attributes the change of
name to the suggestion of the Evil One, "as if the name of a wood for
colouring cloth were of more moment than that of the Wood which imbues the
Sacraments with the tincture of Salvation."
There may perhaps be a doubt if the Land of Brazil derived its name from
the dye-wood.
