Mr. J. Miers on the Ehretiaceas. 199 



these Regaderas, which are at first very small — say about an 

 inch long, and generally expand about a foot in length. These 

 crabs or animals can burrow into the sand out of their pretty 

 home, and reenter it at will. The hooks of course frequently 

 catch Regaderas without bringing them up ; and many that 

 have been recovered show signs of having had a new piece of 

 netting put over the part torn by the hook. 



" It is said that the first Regadera discovered in Cebti was 

 sold for $50, and that a Dr. Caloo, who took it to Manilla, 

 was there offered $200 for it. For some time after that they 

 continued to be worth $16 each. 



" It was only in 1865 that they became abundant, through 

 the present bed being discovered." 



XXIX. — On the Ehretiacese. 

 By John Miees, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Continued from p. 112.] 



BOURREEIA. 



I have already stated (ante, p. 107) that the Bourreria of 

 Browne [Beurreria, Jacq.), which DeCandolle regarded as a 

 mere section of Ehretia, must be regarded as a distinct genus, 

 on account of the several differential characters there men- 

 tioned. Its drupaceous fruit encloses four nucules, flattened 

 on their converging angular sides, rounded exteriorly, where 

 they are cleft obliquely into many thin laminiform plates, 

 which are intersected by small divisions into numerous cells 

 filled with fibrous and pulpy matter, thus forming a sub- 

 spongiose rigid network on the exterior side ; its inner portion 

 is osseous, angular, and contains a single seed : this semini- 

 ferous cell is somewhat incurved longitudinally round another 

 spurious cell, with which it has a placentary communication 

 through a small spot to which the single seed is attached by 

 its middle : this spurious cell is filled with nourishing tissue, 

 and has a large foramen opening externally on one side of the 

 nucule, either on the right or left side ; for the four nuts are 

 geminately arranged in pairs, as in Ehabdia, and in each pair, 

 upon their contiguous sides, these foraminal openings face one 

 another, while the opposite sides are plane ; and through these 

 channels the nourishing vessels from the placentary column 

 are seen to enter each cell : the seed, which fills the true cell, is 

 cylindrical, somewhat incurved as before mentioned, and at- 

 tached by its middle to the placentary point ; upon the integu- 

 ment on that side a line of descending raphe runs from the 

 hilum to a small basal chalaza. Although Gaertner, by mis- 



