266 THE BOTANICAL LABOURS OF 
by Dr. Allemáo, printed for private circulation among its members, I 
have thought that a short notice of them might not prove uninteresting, 
as showing the progress now making in the Brazilian Capital in the 
study of the "— rich botanical treasures of their empire. 
The “ Trabalhos” commence with a report on the formation and 
first labours of the Society, read by the secretary at thoir meeting held 
on the 31st March, 1851. 
The Vellosian Society for the study of Natural History, deriving 
its name from the Canon Velloso, patriareh of Brazilian botanists, was 
established in September, 1850, under the auspices of Dr. Francisco 
Freire Allem&o, whom these papers show to be not only a most zealous 
naturalist, but one who places himself on a level with the present state 
of botanical science in Europe. Tt then consisted of a nucleus of twelve. 
original members, divided into four sections: Mineralogy, with four 
members; Botany, with four members (Dr. Allemáo, Dr. G. S. de Ca- 
panema, Dr. L. Riedel, and Sen. B. J. de Serpa Brandão); Zoology, 
with two members ; and Indigenous Languages, with two members. Dr. 
G. S. de Capanema was appointed Provisional Secretary, and D. E. J. 
de Silva Maia, Treasurer. Corresponding members were named in the 
several provincial towns of Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, and Bahia, and in 
the provinces of Minas Geraes, San Paulo, and Matto Grosso. The 
appointment of foreign honorary members was deferred until the So- 
ciety should have given ample proofs of its development and progress. 
The proceedings of the Society at their different meetings are re- 
ported in the usual form, and the papers laid before it are printed, 
several of them accompanied, as well as Dr. Allemáo's detached 
descriptions, by lithographic plates, most of which do great credit to 
tropical artists, and might even put to shame some of the lithographic _ 
botanical pat which have recently appeared in our own country. — 
Besides several zoological and geological papers, the following relate 
more or less to Botany. 
1. On Machzrium heterapterum, sp. n. ; by the President, Dr. Alle- 
mão, with a plate. 
This is a timber-tree sy a considerable altitude in the virgin 
forests, and known to some dealers under the name of Angelim (given 
to it on account of the similarity of its wood to that of another more 
common tree called Angelim amargoso) ; it is nevertheless scarce, and | 
Dr. Allemáo had himself only twice seen single trees of it; once in the 
