Miscellaneous. 313 



the flower expands. If this cap is not at that time in perfect contact 

 with the nucleus by means of a prolongation which it inserts into the 

 exostome, the nucleus itself acquires a sudden and excessive develop- 

 ment, and sends out to the cap a long slender process, varying much 

 in form in different genera. 



As the direction and structure of the ovule and seed alone consti- 

 tute fixed characters in the Euphorbiaceae, the limitation of this 

 order must be modified, both by the addition of new genera hitherto 

 regarded as distinct, and by the exclusion of several others. The 

 species of JBuxus, and with them Tricera, Sarcococca, and Pa- 

 chysandra, are in the latter category. The development of their 

 placentation is centripetal ; their ovules are anatropous in the direc- 

 tion opposite to those of the Euphorbiaceae, with the raphe exterior, 

 the micropyle superior and interior. The fleshy production which 

 crowns their seeds is not a micropylar caruncle, but proceeds from 

 the funiculus. On the same grounds, the Stylocereae, separated 

 from the Euphorbiaceae, form a small separate group near the 

 Buxeae. 



The Antidesmeae, on the contrary, and the Scepaceae reduced to 

 the genus Aporosa, cannot be separated from the Euphorbiaceae, for 

 they all have the gynaecium of this order at a certain epoch. Their 

 fruit is unilocular and monospermous only through consecutive abor- 

 tions. The number of loculi, of the seeds, the direction and struc- 

 ture of the latter, present no difference at the outset. 



The study of the organogeny has demonstrated the same fact in 

 Callitriche, the ovary of which is bilocular and the cells bi-ovulate at 

 first. This arrangement is merely disguised, subsequently, by the 

 appearance of a false septum comparable to that of Linum, which 

 produces an ovary with four half-cells, each with* one seed. 



The order Euphorbiacese, as sketched by the author, is therefore 

 enriched by the Scepaceae, Antidesmeae, and Callitrichaceae, while 

 it loses the Buxaceae proper. — Comptes Rendus, July 26, 1858. 



On 'Hautle,' or Animal Bread, of the Mexicans, 

 By M. Guerin-Meneville. 



In the 'Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale Zoologique d' Acclimatation/ 

 M. Guerin-Meneville has published a very interesting paper on a 

 sort of bread which the Mexicans call ' Hautle,' and which is made 

 of the eggs of three species of Hemipterous insects belonging to the 

 group of Water-bugs. 



According to M. Craveri, by whom some of the Mexican bread, 

 and of the insects yielding it, were brought to Europe, these insects 

 and their eggs are very common in the fresh waters of the lagunes of 

 Mexico. The natives cultivate in the lagune of Chalco a sort of 

 Car ex called 'Toule,' on which the insects readily deposit their eggs. 

 Numerous bundles of these plants are made, which are taken to a 

 lagune (the Tezcuco), where they float in great numbers in the water. 

 The insects soon come and deposit their eggs on the plants ; and in 



