Miscellaneous. 453 
state that its country is unknown, but that from analogy it is pro- 
bably Western Asia. ‘‘ Rye is supposed to come from the Levant,” 
says M. Eude Deslongchamps, in the ‘ Dictionnaire des Sciences Na- 
turelles,’ vol. xlviil. p. 310. According to M. Kunth* it is a na- 
tive of the countries near the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, but he 
does not cite any proof. All this is as vague as the assertion of 
other ancient and modern authors relative to the Isle of Crete. The 
rye which Marshall of Biberstein found on the Caucasus, and which 
he supposed to be common rye, is now found to be the Secale fra- 
gile, a different species. M.C.Kochf, a traveller who has traversed 
Anatolia, Armenia, the Caucasus and Crimea, now aflirms that he 
has found rye under circumstances where it appears to be really 
spontaneous and native. I quote verbally: ‘‘ On the mountains of 
Pont, not far from the village of Dshmil, in the country of Hemschin, 
upon granite, at an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet, I found our com- 
mon rye alongside my road (an Rdéndern). It was thin in the ear, 
and about 1 to 24 inches long. No one remembered that it had 
ever been cultivated in the neighbourhood ; it was not even known 
as a cereal. I have received the same ears, thin and short, from 
M. Thirke, at Brussa. If I am not mistaken, he had gathered them 
on Mount Olympus or in the neighbourhood. I but seldom found 
that rye was cultivated, for example in the countries of Kur, of Ar- 
taban, &c.” 
The question appears to be decided by the details given by M. Koch, 
and in the way that history and botanical geography rendered most 
likely. —A. DeCandolle in the Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 
June 1849. 
PRESIDENCY OF THE LINNHAN SOCIETY. 
The ‘ Atheneum,’ in noticing Mr. Robert Brown’s acceptance of 
the unanimous invitation of the Council of the Linnean Society to 
allow himself to be nominated for the presidency, favours the Society 
with the following sapient suggestion :— It has not transpired 
whether the invitation has or has not been received conditionally by 
Mr. Brown. There is a strong feeling among the Fellows in favour 
of a biennial election to the presidency.” We need hardly say that 
this statement is wholly without foundation, and merely the impu- 
dent assertion of the anonymous writer who has obtruded it upon 
the public.—R. T. 
On the pulverulent matter which covers the surface of the body of 
Lixus and other Insects. 
Several insects exhibit, on their surface, various pulverulent sub- 
stances, very analogous to cryptogamic vegetations, but merely in 
abnormal cases, which terminate in the death of the animal. ‘The 
species of Lirus, and some exotic Coleoptera, exhibit, in their 
healthy state, a quantity of a yellow powder on their elytra, which 
is reproduced when artificially removed. 
From the observations of MM. Boulbeéne and Follin it appears 
that this powder presents sporules, filaments, and, in a word, all the 
* Enumeratio Plant. vol. i. p. 449. + Linnea, vol. xxi. p. 427, 1848. 
