Miscellaneous. 261 
continually brewed in small quantities and for immediate consumption. 
Wheat is sometimes, but rarely, malted; oat malt is much more 
common. ‘The chief use of the oat was for horse-food ; but oatmeal 
was made for the broth or porridge of the house. Rye was very 
scantily cultivated. A peculiar kind of barley called drageum is very 
generally cultivated, especially in the eastern counties ; drage, like 
barley, was made into malt. The three leguminous plants, beans, 
peas, and vetches, were generally not extensively cultivated, the 
average being small in every case’’ (p. 27). ‘‘ Hemp was cultivated 
to some extent ; it was employed for the home manufacture of ropes” 
(p. 28). 
On Postfloration. By D. Cros. 
It was only at the commencement of the present century that 
attention was first paid to eestivation and its importance in classifica- 
tion was recognized. But if the relative position of the floral parts of 
the same whorl before the expansion of the flower deserves to be 
taken into consideration, would it not appear @ priori that their 
different appearances after anthesis should also possess some in- 
terest ? 
In 1859 M. Fermond indicated the part played in the act of 
fecundation by the perianth of certain plants. But is there in cer- 
tain families, yenera, or subgenera something of a general character 
in the arrangement of the floral organs, and especially of the petals, 
after the accomplishment of fecundation? I have in vain consulted 
the Aunals of Science on this question, and now communicate to the 
Academy my first observations on the subject. 
There are some plants which lose their calyx or their corolla soon 
after their expansion, and which, for this reason alone, have no 
postfloration. Thus the sepals of the Papaveraceze and of many 
Cruciferze, the petals of the Papaveracez and Cistinex, and of Rhewxia 
virginica, and the corollas of Alonzoa, of the Chinese Primrose, &e. 
fall very soon. 
Others have no distinct postfloration, their petals retaining, after 
anthesis, the same arrangement which they possessed before ex- 
pansion. Such are the Saxifrages, Lycium, Cestrum aurantiacum, 
and Cajophora lateritia. In Pelargonium these organs become 
slightly curled. 
It is rarely that the postfloration reproduces the estivation. 
Nevertheless the families Malvaceze and Oxalideze present us with 
petals resuming, during their withering, the same twisted arrange- 
ment that they had in the bud. 
The following are the principal types of postfloration that I have 
been able to distinguish :— 
1. CLosep (postfloratio occlusa).—The petals of Echeveria, 
after flowering, approach each other and close the orifice of the 
corolla. 
2. ParuLous (postft. patula).—The perianth of Boussingaultia 
