4649. _brasil_, a wood used for dyeing of a _bright red_ colour; hence the allusion. It is mentioned as being used for dyeing leather in Riley's Memorials of London, p. 364. '_Brazil-wood_; this name is now applied in trade to the dye-wood imported from Pernambuco, which is derived from certain species of _Cæsalpinia_ indigenous there. But it originally applied to a dye-wood of the same genus which was imported from India, and which is now known in trade as _Sappan_. The history of the word is very curious. For when the name was applied to the newly discovered region in S. America, probably, as Barros alleges, because it produced a dye-wood similar in character to the _brazil_ of the East, the trade-name gradually became appropriated to the S. American product, and was taken away from that of the E. Indies. See some further remarks in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, 2nd ed. ii. 368-370. 'This is alluded to also by Camo[e]s (Lusiad, x. 140). Burton's translation has:-- "But here, where earth spreads wider, ye shall claim Realms by the _ruddy dye-wood_ made renowned; These of the 'Sacred Cross' shall win the name, By your first navy shall that world be found." 'The medieval forms of _brazil_ were many; in Italian, it is generally _verzi_, _verzino_, or the like.'--Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 86. Again--'_Sappan_, the wood of _Cæsalpinia sappan_; the _baqqam_ of the Arabs, and the Brazil-wood of medieval commerce. The tree appears to be indigenous in Malabar, the Deccan, and the Malay peninsula.'--id. p. 600. And in Yule's edition of Marco Polo, ii. 315, he tells us that 'it is extensively used by native dyers, chiefly for common and cheap [259] cloths, and for fine mats. The dye is precipitated dark-brown with iron, and red with alum.' Cf. Way's note on the word in the Prompt. Parv. p. 47. Florio explains Ital. _verzino_ as 'brazell woode, or fernanbucke [Pernambuco] to dye red withall.' The etymology is disputed, but I think _brasil_ and Ital. _verzino_ are alike due to the Pers. _wars_, saffron; cf. Arab. _war[=i]s_, dyed with saffron or _wars_. _greyn of Portingale._ _Greyn_, mod. E. _grain_, is the term applied to the dye produced by the coccus insect, often termed, in commerce and the arts, _kermes_; see Marsh, Lectures on the E. Language, Lect. III. The colour thus produced was 'fast,' i. e. would not wash out; hence the phrase to _engrain_, or to _dye in grain_, meaning to dye of a fast colour. Various tones of red were thus produced, one of which was _crimson_, and another _carmine_, both forms being derivatives of _kermes_. _Of Portingale_ means 'imported from Portugal.' In the Libell of English Policy, cap. ii. (l. 132), it is said that, among 'the commoditees of _Portingale_' are:--'oyl, wyn, osey [Alsace wine], wex, and _graine_.'