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. xlviii. p. 310. According to M. Kunth* it is a na- 

 tive of the countries near the Caucasus aud the Caspian Sea, but he 

 does not cite any proof. All this is as vague as fhe 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 affirms 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 Rdndern). It was thin in the ear, 

 and about 1 to 2^ 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 Bihliotheque Universelle de Geneve, 

 June 1849. 



PRESIDENCY OF THE LINNiEAN SOCIETY. '-^^^^^^ ^ ^^ 



The * Athenaeum,' in noticing Mr. Robert Brown's acceptance of 

 the unanimous invitation of the Council of the Linnsean 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 Lixus, 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. Boulb^ne and Follin it appear* 

 that this powder presents sporules, filaments, and, in a word, all the 



* Enumeratia Plant, vol. i. p. 449. f Linnsea, vol. xxi. p. 427, 1848, 



