Miscellaneous. 237 The system is most singular. The male continued copulating nearly-one hour, but I could not observe that they locked like dogs, and they did not turn as the latter animals do. The time of gestation has been twelve weeks from the first act of copulation ; four cubs were produced, which continued blind for nine days." — J. J. Isaac-son, Liverpool Zoological Gardens. on a representative of the order of insectivorous mammalia belonging to new holland. by m. gervais. The animal which is the subject of this note has been recently described in England under the name of Myrmecobius fasciatus by Mr. Waterhouse, who considers it as belonging to the class of the Didelphides, at the same time noticing the points of resemblance be-tween it and certain Insectivora, and principally with the Tupaia or Cladobatce. M. Gervais, insisting on these resemblances, remarks, that, comparing the osseous head of the Myrmecobius with that of the Didelphides, we find in the existence of two palatin holes (instead of four as in this group of animals), in the arrangement of the as-cending branch of the lower jaw, &c, differences which would rather induce us to refer this new genus to the monodelphial mammifera than to the didelphial. — Compte Rendu, No. 14, Oct. 1838. CAOUTCHOUC IN PLANTS*. The substance caoutchouc is a widely disseminated constituent of vegetable fluids. It has hitherto, I believe, been found only in plants with milky juice, although its presence in all plants yielding such fluid remains to be proved. The presence of caoutchouc in silk has been, I believe, attributed to the nature of the fluids of the plants on which the caterpillars feed ; but this, although applicable to the mulberry plants, can scarcely hold good with the various species of Tetranthera on which the Moonga feeds, or with the castor-oil plant, the chief food of the Eria, which in Assam does not appear to yield milk. Milky juice is often characteristic of certain families, but often not ; its presence is frequently of importance, as it often af-fords valuable indications of affinity. It is remarkable that it is al-most unknown in the grand division of Monocotyledonous plants. The families in which its presence may be said to be universal are Apocquea, Asclepiadea, Campanulacea, Sobeliacea and the great divi-sion of Composite, Chicoracea, of which the lettuce is a familiar ex-ample. It is of common occurrence in Euphorbiacea and Tulicea, which orders may be looked on as the grand sources of caoutchouc. * From Mr. Wm. Griffith's Report. Journ. of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal.
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