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 Postjloration, By D. Clos. 



It was only at the commencement of the present century that 

 attention was first paid to aestivation 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 h priori that their 

 difi^rent 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, genera, 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 Aimals 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 Papaveracese and of many 

 Cruciferse, the petals of the Papaveracese and Cistinese, and of Rhexia 

 virginica, and the corollas of Alonzoa, of the Chinese Primrose, &c. 

 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 aestivation. 

 Nevertheless the families Malvaceae and Oxalidese 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. Closed {jpostfloratio occlusa). — The petals of Echeveria, 

 after flowering, approach each other and close the orifice of the 

 corolla. 



2. Patulous {postfl. patula). — The perianth of Boussingaultia 



