Falcestra Scientijica. 147 



Vincente — the last struggle of that heroic Indian race, the 

 founding of Rio, and the subjugation of the entire force, 

 under Nictheroy, by the Portuguese. 



The Palcestra Scientifica is a branch of this institution, 

 the members being chiefly naturalists. The gentlemen of the 

 Novara Expedition were invited to one of the meetings, which 

 was inaugurated by the secretary reading aloud an ancient 

 manuscript upon the natural resources of various provinces in 

 Brazil, according to explorations, which had been undertaken 

 in 1798, by the directions and at the cost of the then 

 Portuguese Government. There was also read a memoir 

 upon the culture of linseed, formerly carried on in the 

 province of St. Catharina, which, however, is now entirely 

 discontinued. Dr. Schiich presented to the Society voca- 

 bularies of the Croado and Puris languages, compiled by 

 M. R. F. de Senestes, a retired Belgian ship captain, now 

 resident at Minas, who had long traded with these two 

 Indian races. Dr. Schiich also exhibited a pigment, or dye- 

 stufi^, extracted from the wood of the Ipe-tree, a species of 

 bignonia, extensively used in the manufacture of axles. 

 State Councillor and Senator Candido Baptista de Oliveira, 

 [formerly Minister and Ambassador at St. Petersburg, and at 

 that time publisher and editor of the Rivista Brasileira 

 (Brazilian Review)"], brought forward some meteorological 

 tables> and explained his new method for measuring altitudes. 

 The proceedings are usually conducted in the Portuguese 

 language j but out of courtesy to the foreigners, French was 



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