PHYTOLOGY.--The oak tree is here more diversified than in the mother country, and excellent for building. The sassafras, cedar, _loiro_, _pau d’arco_, and those called _guarabu_ and _grapecique_, are trees of precious wood, well adapted for cabinet work; likewise the tree denominated here _pau d’oleo_, having the grain close and nicely waved. The Brazilian pine is numerous in various districts. There are a diversity of medicinal plants; likewise the plant that nurtures the cochineal, which has been fully described by many writers. It is an insect, and feeds upon the leaves of the _opuncia_; its size is so diminutive at first, that it scarcely can be seen, but it soon moves and fixes upon a part of the plant, from which it does not remove, and becomes gradually covered with a white skin, so that the body, which is scarlet, is no longer seen. In three months it arrives at maturity, and is not larger than a small pea; there are various modes of cultivating it, and great care is required to keep off other insects which destroy it. This is an article of considerable commerce and might be cultivated to a great extent in the Brazil. ZOOLOGY.--Cattle do not abound in consequence of the mountainous nature of the country. Amongst other wild quadrupeds, are well known the deer, the _tamandua_, the monkey, the boar, the _ounce_, the _anta_, the _paca_, and the _quaty_. Amongst numerous species of birds are remarked the parrot, the macuco partridge, the _rola_, or turtle, the _guara_, and various sorts of the humming bird called _colibri_, or _beija-flor_. The lakes abound with wild ducks and geese. An infinite variety of beautiful butterflies are seen in this province, to delight the eye, and engage the research of the naturalist. The air appears filled with floating flowers. RIVERS, LAKES, AND PORTS.--The first are generally of a short extent. About three miles north-north-east of the Towers is the mouth of the Mampituba, about one hundred fathoms wide, which was called for some time the Martim Affonso. It is not more than seven leagues long, being formed of various streams that descend from the cordillera; its current is violent, but sumacas, or smacks, ascend with the tide twelve miles to the port of Forquilhas. By its northern margin it receives the waters of a lake, which is about five leagues long, and one broad, extending parallel with the sea-coast as far as the Campos das Lagoinhas, from thence it has another outlet to the sea, by a channel called Arroyo Grande.