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54 ISLAND OF BRAZIL be reared in Italy, it seems unlikely that the seed should be a valued item of commerce, regularly listed, bargained for, and taxed. We do not hear of its being put to use as a dye ; and , indeed , the bark or wood of the plant seems far more promising for that purpose. Like our distinguished forerunners in considering this little mystery, we must set it aside as not yet fully solved. "Grain of Brazil" is not repeated in any entry, so far as I know, after the end of the twelfth century; but brazil as a commodity figures rather frequently; for example, in the schedules of port dues of Barcelona and other Catalan seaboard towns in the thirteenth century, as compiled by Capmany. 7 Thus in 1221 we find "carrega de Brasill," in 1243 "caxia de bresil," and some- what later (1252) "cargua de brazil," the spelling varying as in the easy-going fourteenth- and fifteenth-century maps, the word being plainly the same. But the word and the thing were not confined to the Mediterranean, for a grant of murage rates of 1312 to the city of Dublin, Ireland, uses the words "de brasile venali." 8 This is pretty far afield and shows that the knowledge and use of brazil as taxable merchandise was nearly Europe-wide. As a rule, it has been taken for granted that the word meant either some special kind of red dyewood or dyewood in general. Marco Polo's account conforms rather to the former version, while Humboldt seems to lean toward the latter; but there is singularly little in the entries which tends to identify it as wood at all or in any way relate it thereto. Such words as carrega, caxia, cargua, show that it was put up in some kind of inclosure, and perhaps give the impression of comminution or at least absence of bulkiness. Most likely many kinds of red bark, red wood suitable for dyeing, and perhaps other vegetable products available for that purpose were sometimes included under the name brazil. People of that time were more concerned about 7 Antonio de Capmany: Memorias historicas sob re la marina, comercio, y artes de la antigua ciudad de Barcelona, 4 vols., Madrid, 1779-92; reference in Vol. 2, pp. 4, 17, and 20. 8 T. J. Westropp: Early Italian Maps of Ireland from 1300 to 1600, With Notes on Foreign Settlers and Trade, Proc. Royal Irish Acad., Vol. 30, Section C, 1912-13, pp. 361-428; reference on p. 393.