BRAZIL, Island of, and other imaginary islands in the Atlantic. For a long time before the discovery of America, the fancies of navigators or of cosmographers had scattered over the Atlantic a number of islands, either wholly imaginary, or so detached from the germ of truth which had suggested their existence as to represent no fact in nature. Several such islands are described in the Arabic geography of Edrisi (1153-54 A.D.), and if, passing over more than four hundred years, we take up an atlas of Minister or Mercator we shall find that the northern Atlantic, instead of presenting a vast blank as in our most recent charts, is almost as full of islands and shoals as the heaven is of stars. To our present category belongs the island of St Brandon, the supposed discovery of an Irish eremite of the 6th century, of whose voyage many wonders are related. Such also were Antilia and the Island of the Seven Cities, connected with another legend of uncertain date, which described this as the refuge of a body of Christians, who, in flight from the Saracen conquerors of the Peninsula, had, under the guidance of their seven bishops, committed themselves to the wide ocean ; such were May da or Asinaide, the Isla Verde, or Green Isle (which the natives of the Hebrides still think they see beneath the western sun), but none more famous and recurrent than the Isle of Brazil. The name of tlr s island connects itself with the red dye-woods known by tL .<; name in the Middle Ages, a name that possibly also may have been applied to other vegetable dyes, and so may descend from the Insulce Purpurarice of Pliny. Its first appearance on a map appears to be (/. de Brazi) in the Venetian portulano of Andrea di Bianco (143G), where it is found attached to one of the larger islands of the Azores. When this group became better known and was colonized, the island in question got the name of Terceira. And the conservative spirit of map-makers then sought a new posi tion for that Island of Brazil which they found in the charts of their predecessors, and this island grew in (imaginary) importance and size. In time, better knowledge of the Atlantic showed that these must be exaggerated, but belief in the island s existence endured.
The conservative spirit just referred to has indeed preserved in some shape most of the names mentioned above. The name of the Seven Cities survives as applied to a volcanic district of the Island of St Michael s (Azores). Antilia and St Brandon s Isle were con spicuous on the maps which were probably in the hands of Columbus on his first western voyage. The latter name has disappeared indeed, but the former survives in a plural form, as applied to the West Indies (Antilles). So also it is probable that the familiar existence of Brazil " as a geographical name led to its bestowal upon the vast continental region of South America, which was found to supply dye-woods kindred to those which the name properly denoted. The older memory, however, survived also, and the Island, of Brazil retained its place in mid-ocean, some hundred miles to the west of Ireland, both in the traditions of the forecastle and in charts. In Purday s General Chart of the Atlantic, " corrected to 1830," we find the Mayda indeed noted as "very doubtful," but "Isle Verte or Green Rock" (44 48 N. lat., and 26 3 10 W. long.) with the remark, "Existence lately confirmed ; " and Brazil Rock (high), " with no indication of doubt, in 51 10 N. lat. , 15 50 W. long. In a chart of currents by the late Mr Findlay, dated 1853, these names appear again. But in his 12th edition of Purday s Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory of the, N. Atlantic Ocean (1865), the existence of these islands is briefly discussed and rejected by Mr Findlay, with the intimation that their names would be entirely omitted in future editions.
Thus the official sepulture of the old tradition of the island of Brazil took place only eleven years before the date of this article (1876). And now the surface of the Atlantic, as represented in the latest Admiralty charts, shows between St Kilda and Bermuda, between Newfoundland and the Azores, but one point rising above the water, viz., the sugar loaf of Rockall, in 57 35 52" N. lat., 13 42 21" W. long.
BRAZIL NUTS are the seeds of Bertholletia excelsa (B. nobilis of Miers), a gigantic tree belonging to the natural order Lecythidacece, which grows in the valleys of the Amazons and generally throughout tropical America. The tree attains an average height of 130 feet, having a smooth cylindrical trunk, with a diameter of 14 feet 50 feet from the ground, and branching at a height of about 1 00 feet. The lower portion of the trunk presents a but tressed aspect, owing to the upward extension of the roots in the form of thin prop-like walls surrounding the stem. The fruit of the tree is globular, with a diameter of 5 or G inches, and consists of a thick hard woody shell, within which are closely packed the seeds which constitute the so-called nuts of commerce. The seeds are triangular in form, having a hard woody testa enclosing the " kernel ; " and of these each fruit contains from eighteen to twenty- five. The fruits as they ripen fall from their lofty position, and they are at the proper season annually collected and broken open by the Indians. From Para alone it is esti mated that upwards of two and a half millions of fruits, equal to fifty millions of " nuts/ are exported annually, in addition to the large quantities which leave other Brazilian harbours, and Demerara, Cayenne, etc. Brazil nuts are largely eaten ; they also yield in the proportion of about 9 oz. to each pound of kernels a fine bland fluid oil, highly valued for use in cookery, and used by watchmakers and artists.
BRAZIL WOOD is one of several dye woods of com merce which come from the West Indies and South America, belonging to the genera Ccesalpinia and Peltophorum of the natural order Leguminosce. The species to which the various woods belong have not been well determined, but commercially they are distinguished as Brazil wood, Nica ragua or Peach wood, Pernambuco wood, and Lima wood, each of which has a different commercial value, although the tinctorial principle they yield is similar. Commercial Brazil wood is imported for the use of dyers in billets of large size, and is a dense compact wood of a reddish brown colour, rather bright when freshly cut, but becoming dull on exposure. The colouring-matter of Brazil wood is freely soluble in water, and it is extracted for use by simple infusion or decoction of the coarsely-powdered wood. When freshly prepared the extract is of a yellowish tint ; but by contact with the air, or the addition of an alkaline solution, it develops a brick red colour. A chemical principle, termed brazilin, has been isolated from Brazil wood. It crystallizes into hexagonal amber yellow crystals, which are soluble in water and alcohol. The solution when free of oxygen is colourless, but on the access of air it assumes first a yellow and thereafter a reddish yellow colour. With soda-ley it takes a brilliant deep carmine tint, which colour may be discharged by heating in a closed vessel with zinc dust, in which condition the solution is excessively sensitive to oxygen, the slightest exposure to air immediately giving a deep carmine. With tin mordants Brazil wood gives brilliant but fugitive steam reds in calico-printing; but on account of the loose nature of its dyes it is-seldom used except as an adjunct to other colours. It is used to form lakes which are employed in tinting papers, staining paper-hangings, and for various other decorative purposes.
BRAZZA, the ancient Brattia, an island in the Adriatic, off the coast of Dalmatia, in the circle of Spalatro, and eight miles from that city. It has an area of 170 square miles, and a population of 15,500. The surface is rugged and mountainous, but is industriously cultivated, and its wine is accounted the best in Dalmatia. It produces also oil, figs, almonds, and saffron ; but the corn crop scarcely supplies the wants of the inhabitants for three months. There are about twelve or thirteen hamlets in the . island, the most important being San Pietro, Neresi, BoL, and Milnii.
