Basil is a medicinal aromatic plant of the Lamiaceae family, it is rich in essential oils with high industrial interest. The present work to verify the production of basil plants, from different sources and combinations of substrates. The study was conducted in greenhouse Sector, Department of Soil Environmental Science, Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid (UFERSA) in May 2010. Basil seedlings were grown from seeds from plants on the campus of UFERSA. The experimental design was randomized blocks representing five treatments and four replicates of 10 seedlings per plot. The treatments employed arisco, sand, cattle manure and earthworm castings in different combinations. Features diameter, leaf number, shoot length and root dry mass of shoots and roots were evaluated thirty days after sowing. It was found that adding cattle manure in the compositions of the substrates was increased growth and development of seedlings. In the production of seedlings of basil is recommended mixture of substrates containing cattle manure, sand and arisco in the ratio 1:1:1.

The Caatinga is one of the richest Brazilian biomes, however its biodiversity is constantly threatened by human activities, especially the use of fire for cleaning and/or increase areas for agricultural activities. In this study, it's determined the months and the days with highest risk of forest fires in the Seridó Ecological Station in Serra Negra do Norte-RN and was developed with daily data of precipitation and relative humidity of the years 1999-2004, collected in the Climatological Station, through Monte Alegre Formula. The results show that in January, February, March, April and May, the rainy season in the region, are the months with the lowest fire danger, are classified as null to very high risk, while August, September, October, November and December, dry season in the region, reached the highest degree of danger, being classified as high to very high risk. During the study period almost 75% of days had high to very high fire hazard while the levels null and small together reached more than 13%, more occurring in the months January to April.

The Serra de Itabaiana is located near the coast of Sergipe, in the municipalities of Areia Branca and Itabaiana. It is part of the Parque Nacional Serra de Itabaiaba, which is characterized as being an ecotone. Orchidaceae Juss. is one of the most diverse families in the world and is the fourth richest in the study area. This paper presents a taxonomic survey of the orchids from the area. The fieldwork was carried out during july 2006 to january 2009 in several habitats of the study area and during the dry and rainy seasons. The vouchers are at UFP Herbarium, with duplicates at ASE, BHCB, HUEFS and RB. The current work registered 25 species belonging to 17 genera. Habenaria (5 spp.) and Epidendrum (3 spp.) were the most diverse. It represents around 70% of the total orchid species recorded for the State of which 14 are new records (see Flora of Brazil, www.jbrj.gov.br). The large number of orchid species, which five of them are endemic to Brazil supports the area as a Conservation Site and reinforces the needs for floristic-taxonomic inventories for a better knowledge of the real diversity of the family in the Brazilian Northeastern.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the precision of the Original Geometric Method and Modified Geometric Method, to estimate the individual volume of 100 trees of Eucalyptus urophylla S. T. Blake, coming from a plantation with high variability of shape, with five years of age, located in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil. For this, the trees were rigorously cubed and separated into five diameter classes with an amplitude of 3 cm, and their actual volumes were compared with volumes estimated by the respective methods, in an analysis of variance in factorial with two factors (diameter classes and methods). The results showed that, in general, the methods produced good estimates of volume, however, there was loss of precision in estimates related to a greater taper of the trees belonging to the largest diameter classes (DBH > 12 cm), with shape factors smaller than 0.46, as well as the presence of deformations on the stem.

The objective of this work was to evaluate an aspirated psychrometer constructed under different thermocouple gauges. Were used three thermocouple copper-constantan gauge: 24 AWG (0.511 mm of diameter), 32 AWG (0.202 mm of diameter) and 40 AWG (0.080 mm of diameter). The thermocouples were placed into a single psychrometer and each one positioned side by side at a distance of approximately 30 mm each other. Hourly air temperature and humidity values obtained from each gauge were compared with the values obtained with a thermistor and capacitive hygrometer. The results showed that the thermocouple gauges used (24, 32 and 40 AWG) had high correlation and accuracy with values determined by the hygrometer (r2 > 0.97, RMSE P 3.91%).

The increase of the shrimp and fruit crop has devastated the carnauba, evidencing the importance of reforest projects and of researches aiming to the production of seedlings. It was aimed to evaluate the effect of imbibition of seeds and shading on the emergence and quality of carnauba seedlings. The treatments were disposed in a randomized design arranged in split-plot with the shading conditions (without shading and shading all day, during the morning and during the afternoon) as the main factor and the types of seeds (imbibed and non-imbibed seeds) as secondary factor. The imbibed seeds were immersed in water until the protrusion of the cotyledonary petiole. To the shading conditions was used black screen (50%). After 120 days of the sowing, we evaluated the percentage (PE), speed index (IVE) and mean time of emergency (TME), the ratio between the aerial part length and stem¿s diameter (CPA/DC) and quality index of Dickson (IQD). By the PE and IVE, higher viability was verified and vigor in imbibed seeds. By the TME, higher vigor was observed to the seedlings produced under full sunshine and with shading during the afternoon, which had higher quality according to CPA/DC. By the IQD, better balance was observed in the seedling from imbibed seeds and in the seedlings produced under full sunshine. It is concluded that the carnauba seeds imbibition provides higher emergency percentage, accelerates this process and provides better quality of seedlings. Carnauba seedlings produced under full sunshine presents faster emergency and higher quality.

The preliminary investigation of chemical constituents of a plant allows the prior knowledge of the extract and indicates the nature of the present substances. The aim of this paper was to detect the absence or presence of appreciable amounts of various chemical constituents in extracts of jurubeba [Solanum paniculatum Linnaeus (1762)], capim santo [Cymbopogon citratus Stapf (1906)], batata de purga [Operculina hamiltonii (G. DON) D.F. Austin & Staples (1983)] and melão de são caetano [Momordica charantia Linnaeus (1763)], which has been indicated as alternative treatment against gastrintestinal helmintiasis of small ruminants. The jurubeba was collected in the city of Teixeira - PB. The capim santo, the batata de purga and the melão de são caetano were collected at the Centro de Saúde e Tecnologia Rural/UFCG, Patos - PB, in august and september of 2008. After, was realized the identification of the indicated shares to the ethnopharmacology study, deposited in the Herbário Caririense Dárdano de Andrade - Lima of the Universidade Regional do Cariri-URCA. The acquisition of the extract and phytochemical study followed the methodology described by Matos (1997). To obtain the extract was used the dust of the shares collected from each plant and as solvent ethanol PA. Four tests (phenols and tannins; anthocyanins, anthocyanidins and flavonoids; leucoanthocyanidins, catechins and flavanones; and alkaloids.) were conducted for the exploration of hydroalcoholical constituents. In the chemical assay were concluded that the ethanol extracts of the four plants with compounds such as tannins and catechins, and absence of phenols, anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins.

The present work had as objective to carry through the agroclimatic zoning of the culture of surinam cherry in the state of Pernambuco. They had been used given average annual of minimum and maximum pluvial precipitation and pertaining temperatures of air the 201 climatologic station located in the main representative cities of the regions of the State for the elaboration of the water balance and the attainment of the thermal and water limits. The function density of probability of the distribution gamma was used to classify the dry, regular and rainy years. The maps of dry, regular and rainy years had been produced using interpolation for kriging. The results had presented 19 cities with full aptitude for dry years, 50 cities for regular years and 66 cities for rainy years apt to the culture of surinam cherry. The cities of Cortês, Gameleira and Palmares had revealed with better aptitudes agroclimatic for the culture of the surinam cherry in Pernambuco.

It was evaluated the influence of doses of KCl applied to soil and to the leaf axil of the the quality of the fruit and on the concentration of K in the water and peel of the fruit. The experiment was carried out at a commercial orchard of green dwarf coconut tree (Cocos nucifera L.) in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, in a typical Ortic Quartzarenic Neossol, during one year, using a randomized complete block design with five treatments and sixteen replicates. The treatments consisted in two application ways (in the soil and in the axil of the leaf number nine) and two manuring levels (1666 and 3333 g of KCl plant-1 year-1 in the soil and 833 and 1666 g plant-1 year-1 in the leaf axil, with three month intervals), besides a control, without KCl. The application of KCl resulted in the increase of the concentration and of the content of K in the water and in the peel of the fruit. There was no influence of potassium fertilization on the mass, the volume, the pH, C.E. and SST of the coconut water. The application of high doses of K should be reviewed in view of the low recovery rate of the potassium fertilizer.

Este trabalho apresenta os resultados de um levantamento florístico da família Poaceae realizado no Parque Nacional Serra de Itabaiana, com o objetivo de contribuir com o conhecimento da riqueza da flora do Parque. O PARNA Serra de Itabaiana (10º45’15’’S e 37º25’15’’O) está localizado no estado de Sergipe e abrange uma área de 7966 ha que compreende três unidades, as serras do Cajueiro, Comprida e de Itabaiana. As coletas foram realizadas entre abril de 2006 e abril de 2008. As informações sobre distribuição foram levantadas de herbários, na literatura e em bancos de dados disponíveis na internet. Foram identificadas 40 espécies classificadas em 19 gêneros, sendo Paspalum L. o mais bem representado no PARNA, com oito espécies. Cinco espécies tiveram o registro de distribuição ampliada neste trabalho. É apresentada uma chave de identificação das espécies e comentários sobre distribuição e aspectos ecológicos.