singular fragrance of the smell discovers. American as well as European painters derive much benefit from the oil of the cupaỹ, for when mixed with garlick, it brightens pictures better than any varnish, and will never be obscured by time, if mixed with the colours instead of linseed oil. In wooden images, particularly, nothing is better for painting the face, hands, and every thing of flesh, of a natural colour. I can scarce persuade myself that the oil of the cupaỹ is brought quite pure from America to our shops; and that merchants do not adulterate it to increase the weight. There are three trees in Paraguay, all materially different, but much alike in name; I mean the _cupaỹ_, _the curupaỹ_, and the _curupicaỹ_. The curupaỹ affords bark like that of the çevil, which the Indians use to dress ox-hides with. To give them a red colour they mix the bark of the curupaỹ with that of another tree, (the caatigua, which the Abipones call achitè). The curupicaỹ, a tree not larger nor harder than the elder, has a spungy kind of wood, unfit for any purpose, that I know of, which at the slightest touch, sheds a milky juice commonly thought to be poisonous. PIÑON DEL PARAGUAY, OR THE CATHARTIC NUT. This is a shrub resembling the fig tree of our country, in its leaves, its form, and the softness of its wood. The trunk and leaves, when pressed with the hand distil a milky juice abounding in serum. It bears fruit like dark walnuts, beneath the hard black rind of which lie three white kernels, covered with a white membrane and divided into as many separate compartments; in sweetness, and in shape they resemble almonds. These kernels, _piñones del Paraguay_, or piny nuts of Paraguay, are called by physicians, cathartic nuts, _ricini Americani_, or purging beans; for two or three kernels, which many say ought to be first stripped of their white skin, then bruised in wine, and roasted a little on the fire, to mitigate their purging qualities, when eaten, will cause vomiting, purge the bowels, and expel noxious humours. Whether these nuts are sold in the druggists' shops in Europe, and whether physicians prescribe the use of them, I do not know. This is certain, that they must be taken cautiously, and with regard to the strength of the sick person. A branch of this tree, when cut and committed to the earth, soon takes root, and grows up very quickly. THE VAYNILLA.