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Scientific Intelligence. — Botany. 
this country. But he will not engage to furnish any collections 
under L. 300, nor above L. 500, having already pledged his 
word to several London collectors, to suit them by the choice of 
single specimens. Any orders he obtains, and these, we doubt 
not, will be numerous, now that scientific societies, and private 
collections are rising every where, will be executed under the 
condition, that he is to bear every expence, to and from, should 
the collection not agree with the expectation of the receiver. 
BOTANY. 
13. Gum Animi as connected with the origin of Amber . — 
“We saw in the woods many of the trees from which the gum 
animi is obtained (Hymenoea Courbaril, L.) They are here 
called Sataba or Jatar. Between the bark and the wood of this 
tree, which in its growth resembles the elm, there are, in pro- 
portion, but a few interstices filled with fluid gum ; the far 
greater part of it is found under the principal roots, when they 
are bared of the earth, which, in general, cannot be done, with- 
out felling the tree. Under old trees, pale yellow round cakes, 
weighing from six to eight pounds, are sometimes found, which 
have been formed by the gradual filtering of the liquid gum. 
The purity and colour of this substance, principally depends on 
the nature of the earth in which these cakes are found, for the 
brown mould or moor soil, imparts to them certain ingredients, 
which are not found in the dry, clayey, or sandy soil. The 
finest part of the gum, however, is that which, exuding from the 
bark chiefly in the dry season, in the months of September and 
October, is collected by the inhabitants in the form of drops, 
and melted over the fire. The formation of these large masses 
of gum between the roots, seem to throw some light on the ori- 
gin of amber, as it is very conceivable, that this vegetable sub- 
stance may have been partly accumulated in the ground, in a 
similar manner, under the trees which produced it, before it was 
received and rounded by the sea. Insects, too, particularly ants, 
are also found in the pieces of the Jatar gum, as in amber. 
The layapos, and other Indian tribes on the Rio Grande, on 
the banks of which the Hymenoea forms extensive woods, form 
* We met with several kinds of hymenoea, all of which produce gum, 
