Jct.y 1. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
209 
I 31st of July, 1800, in tlio convent of Barbadinas, at 
! Lisbon. 
I 
M. VINCENT LUNAEDI TO DE. FOEDYCE. 
| This evening I shall be at your house, about ten o'clock. 
The obligations I profess to you are beyond any expression, 
j I have been up in the air two hours and twenty minutes, 
j The oars did answer according to my expectation; I was 
able to keep myself three-quarters of an hour, or about fifty 
minutes, at the level of 50° of the thermometer, which I 
I find to be the happiest situation. I went up as high as the 
j freezing, 32° ; and the water which did drop from the neck 
! of the balloon was a piece of ice; then I began to work 
i again with my oar (having lost one), and I descended. 
: When I was an eighth of a mile from the earth, I called to a 
parcel of farmers with the spealdng trumpet; they answered 
to any question. I then touched the ground; left in their 
care my little cat; and I promised them to go out of sight. 
I remained on the ground at anchor two minutes. I let off 
great quantity of ballast, and ascended about four miles 
perpendicular; the thermometer at 29°. I went at that 
level a few miles, and I began to descend. When I was a 
mile from the earth, I began to work with my oar, and en¬ 
deavoured to descend in an open field, about twenty yards 
from a large tree, against off which I could keep the balloon, 
having thrown down my anchor. Then I thought proper to 
let out all the air and parcel the balloon, which I send to 
you, and by the bearer, it may, if you please, be put into 
M. Biggren's room. My compliments to the young ladies. 
GOSSIP. 
A fikst authority, who visited Taunton on the lOth of 
last month, for the purpose of seeing the Exhibition of 
the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society 
reports that “ its poultry department was a failure, for 
with the exception of a few pens of game fowl, there 
was not a good pen of poultry.” We shall, therefore, 
not occupy our pages by reporting the awards. The 
following remarks upon the Cochin China variety, 
which we borrow from The Western Luminary's report 
of the show, will be read with interest:— 
“ This extraordinary fowl, weighing from ten to twelve 
pounds, has been one of the latest importations from the 
eastern part of the Asiatic continent—a locality which, there 
is little doubt has been the principal, if not the only district, 
that has supplied us with that most important auxiliary to 
the dining-table—the domestic fowl. 
“ AVe have used the names ‘Cochin China’ and ‘ Shanghae' 
as synonyms ; for we must confess we have been unable to 
find out any marks of distinction between them, which would 
be sufficient to stamp each as a distinct variety. The first 
birds of the breed to which our attention is directed, were 
brought to the Queen’s aviary, and were called the “ Cochin- 
China ; ” while a gentleman of Hampshire—Mr. Samuel 
Moody—who was also one of the earliest introducers, 
having received his birds from Shanghae, called them 
naturally by the latter name. Shanghae is, as is well 
known, one of the most northern ports with which we trade 
in his Celestial Majesty’s dominions, and is situated about 
31° N. lat., while Cochin China is a country about one- 
third larger than the British islands, and ranges from about 
9° to about 23° N. lat. Now it is quite possible that birds 
of this kind may have been imported from both countries, 
and as there has long been a trade carried on between the 
Chinese and Cochin-Chinese, either country may have im¬ 
ported them from the other. 
“ AVe know, moreover, from parties who some years ago 
resided at Adelaide, that birds of large size, feathered-legs, 
and possessing all the main features of these birds, were 
brought from Singapore to that port; so that, years ago, 
they were in the very southern part of the Malay peninsula. 
On the other hand, we are informed that at Shanghae they 
are known by the name of Loo-choos —the name of a group of 
islands lying some six or eight degrees off the channel coast. 
It would appear, from these circumstances, that they have 
been"pretty generally distributed over the Eastern coast of 
Asia for some years, and that to establish their original 
habitat would now be no easy matter. This fact will also in 
some measure account for the many imperfect specimens, 
or impurely bred birds, which have been brought home, a 
fact well known to the best judges. More especially is this 
likely to happen if the birds are from Southern ports, as we 
know this is the district of that better known variety—the 
Malay. The birds, therefore, from Shanghae, we should, 
from tire above reasoning, infer to be most likely of the 
purest blood, and we should on thi3 account prefer the 
name given to them by Mr. Moody; though perhaps a more 
general name would be better still. To divide them, how¬ 
ever, into two classes, is decidedly a mistake, as no suffi¬ 
cient marks exist to establish them as distinct varieties. 
The two names best known in connection with this bird, are 
those of Mr. Punchard and Mr. Sturgeon. How the former 
gentleman became possessed of them we do not know; the 
latter, we understand, had them from some ship-captain, and 
afterwards his were crossed into the blood of Mr. Moody’s. If 
we are rightly informed, the latter gentleman has been one 
of the oldest possessors of these fowls, but from his never 
having exhibited, his name, unlike the others, has not 
become associated with their history. 
“ It is to be exceedingly regretted that, as yet, no sound 
and reasonable laws have been laid down on which to decide 
the superiority of this species of stock. The many faults 
which have been urged—and we think justly—against the 
decisions of the Rev. Mr. Dixon and other judges, show us 
that no generally acknowledged criteria have yet been 
established, and, until such are formed and made the basis 
of all decisions, there will always exist this discontent, 
giving us after each exhibition its mutterings ‘ low but 
deep.’ AVe will venture here to state, that the fact of putting 
the dark black-red variety out of court, merely because of 
their colour, though they may be the heaviest and the finest 
in every point besides, is one of the greatest absurdities that 
could be perpetrated. If, indeed, a fowl, like a flower, were 
merely to look at—a thing of fancy alone—without possess¬ 
ing useful qualities—then there might be some show of 
sense in the arrangement; but when the contrary is the 
principle upon which Fowls are kept and cultivated—utility, 
and then beauty, being the sequence of merit, at least in 
the great majority of instances, we think that any man’s 
dictum, setting up a particular colour beyond another par¬ 
ticular colour, and which is equally as natural to the race, 
and combined with which are generally found the largest 
and best developed forms, should be put down as incon¬ 
sistent with common sense. However, we rejoice to hear 
that men are not to be long kept under such absurd regu¬ 
lations, at least in the AVest of England, and that here we 
shall have prizes for dark birds as well as light.” 
It is The National Tulip Show that will be held at 
Nottingham next year, and not the Birmingham Poultry 
Show, as we erroneously stated at page 158. It is not 
intended that the latter exhibition shall he moved in 
any year from Birmingham. 
At a late meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 
Mr. M‘Nab read a paper On the Transmission of 
Foreign Seeds in Soil and Sphagnum. 
“ This experiment was fully tested by himself during 
1834, when he brought over the seeds of many of the rarer 
American Oaks and other trees in boxes filled with soil, 
while portions of the same kinds of seeds packed, both in 
brown paper and cloth bags, were in many instances totally 
useless. 
“ The method he adopted for the American tree seeds, 
was as follows:—He purchased several strong deal boxes 
about 14 inches in diameter, and made of f-inch wood. He 
afterwards procured a quantity of soil taken from a depth of 
8 or 10 inches under the surface so as to possess only a 
natural dampness. A layer of the soil 2 inches deep was 
placed on the bottom of the boxes, above which a layer of 
seeds was distributed; another layer of soil and then seed, 
and so on till the boxes were full; the whole was pressed j 
