BRAZIL or BRASIL, a legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean. The name signifies the red dye-woods used in the middle ages, and Insulae purpurariae are mentioned by Pliny. It first appears as the I. de Brazi, one of the larger islands of the Azores, in the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco (1436). When this group became better known and was colonized, this island was renamed Terceira. Probably the familiar existence of "Brazil" as a geo graphical name led to its bestowal upon the vast region of South America, which was found to supply dye-woods. But 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 J. Purdy's General Chart of the Atlantic "cor rected to 1830" the "Brazil Rock (high)" is marked with no indi cation of doubt, in 51° 1 o' N. and 15° 50' W. In a chart of cur rents, dated 1853, A. G. Findlay gives the name, but in his 12th edition of Purdy's Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory of the N. Atlantic Ocean (1865), the existence of Brazil and some other legendary islands is briefly discussed and rejected. (See also ATLANTIS.)