Caste is also applied to breeds of animals, as 'a high-caste Arab.' In such cases the usage may possibly have come directly from the Port. alta casta, casta baixa, in the sense of breed or strain.
CASTEES, s. Obsolete. The Indo-Portuguese formed from casta the word castiço, which they used to denote children born in India of Portuguese parents; much as creole was used in the W. Indies.
1599.—"Liberi vero nati in Indiâ, utroque parente Lusitano, castisos vocantur, in omnibus fere Lusitanis similes, colore tamen modicum differunt, ut qui ad gilvum non nihil deflectant. Ex castisis deinde nati magis magisque gilvi fiunt, a parentibus et mesticis magis deflectentes; porro et mesticis nati per omnia indigenis respondent, ita ut in tertiâ generatione Lusitani reliquis Indis sunt simillimi."—De Bry, ii. 76; (Linschoten [Hak. Soc. i. 184]).
1638.—"Les habitans sont ou Castizes, c'est à dire Portugais naturels, et nez de pere et de mere Portugais, ou Mestizes, c'est à dire, nez d'vn pere Portugais et d'vne mere Indienne."—Mandelslo.
1653.—"Les Castissos sont ceux qui sont nays de pere et mere reinols ([Reinol]); ce mot vient de Casta, qui signifie Race, ils sont mesprizez des Reynols...."—Le Gouz, Voyages, 26 (ed. 1657).
1661.—"Die Stadt (Negapatam) ist zimlich volksreich, doch mehrentheils von Mastycen Castycen, und Portugesichen Christen."—Walter Schulze, 108.
1699.—"Castees wives at Fort St. George."—Census of English on the Coast, in Wheeler, i. 356.
1701-2.—In the MS. Returns of Persons in the Service of the Rt. Honble. the E. I. Company, in the India Office, for this year, we find, "4th (in Council) Matt. Empson, Sea Customer, marry'd Castees," and under 1702, "13. Charles Bugden ... marry'd Casteez."
1726.—"... or the offspring of the same by native women, to wit Mistices and Castices, or blacks ... and Moors."—Valentijn, v. 3.
CASUARINA, s. A tree (Casuarina muricata, Roxb.—N. O. Casuarineae) indigenous on the coast of Chittagong and the Burmese provinces, and southward as far as Queensland. It was introduced into Bengal by Dr. F. Buchanan, and has been largely adopted as an ornamental tree both in Bengal and in Southern India. The tree has a considerable superficial resemblance to a larch or other finely-feathered conifer, making a very acceptable variety in the hot plains, where real pines will not grow. [The name, according to Mr. Scott, appears to be based on a Malayan name associating the tree with the Cassowary, as Mr. Skeat suggests from the resemblance of its needles to the quills of the bird.]