February 2. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
345 
But putting this line of argument aside, another practice 
might he quoted as likely to tend to the loss of the cherished 
points of the laced Bantam’s excellence. Late-hatched 
chickens of the year are very generally successful at exhibi¬ 
tions, a majority of prizes frequently falling to their share 
at six and seven months old. From prize birds it is often 
hastily concluded that prize chickens are most probably to 
be bred, and immature parents are consequently selected, 
producing chickens that either in form, or feather, or, per¬ 
haps, in both, must constantly evidence the want of judg¬ 
ment in such a choice. The mature bird, on the other hand, 
when at two or three years old the plumage has somewhat 
suffered in regularity, or colour, where, for instance, the 
abhorrent “kite-winy ” has been developed, would have been 
far more likely to have thrown chickens that would have 
contributed to their owner’s reputation. 
The foregoing remarks apply equally to both the “ gold ” 
and “silver” varieties; both of these, indeed, as occasion¬ 
ally happens with Bolands of the same colour, being hatched 
from eggs laid by the same parents. But to the deficiencies 
in the former birds, we have to add in the latter a tendency 
to coarseness and excess of size to which the others are not 
equally subject. This has been apparent for some years, 
and we see no reason to alter our opinion from those that 
have been lately exhibited. The clear silver tone, more¬ 
over, has too generally degenerated into a dull yellowish- 
white, or tended, on the other, to a light shade of bay. 
Our readers need not be reminded that in penning these 
remarks many very beautiful specimens would plead exemp¬ 
tion to the general opinion. We feel obliged to pronounce 
that Bantams have rather retrograded than otherwise during 
the past year; for there have certainly been instances where 
the occupants of pens would, perhaps, have borne com¬ 
parison with the best of former days; but these have oc¬ 
curred but seldom, and when present have the more con¬ 
firmed us in our low estimate of the beauty of their com¬ 
panions. We believe, also, that if there has been no 
improvement on a comparison of very recent times, the 
downward course of the laced Bantams would be still more 
apparent when contrasted with a period of fifteen or twenty 
years since; and that “ they are not what they were," would 
here be a more just application of that remark than in most 
cases in which we hear it used. 
(To he continued.) 
THE GENUS ANCECTOCHILUS. 
If there is a genus of plants that merits our attention, 
and excites a particular admiration more than another, it is 
cerLainly that of Anccctochilus. Since the introduction of 
Setaccus, the first species from the island of Ceylon, no other 
plant surpasses the rich and splendid colour of its leaves. 
It is for peculiarity, that this and the allied genus, Physurus, 
have become so celebrated with cultivators. Unfortunately, 
however, the cultivation of these rare plants has been, and 
still is considered to be, very difficult by amateurs, so much 
so, indeed, that few of them have, hitherto, made the 
attempt, although they must regret the loss of such 
acquisition from their collections. 
This last summer, however, I observed, at the exhibitions 
at the Chiswick gardens, that the whole collection of 
Ancectochilus had been grown in a splendid state of culture, 
and also that they, by their extreme beauty, attracted the 
attention of visitors very much. Those plants, particularly 
favoured by nature, were never seen, perhaps, in so flourishing 
a state, but more commonly in a weak, wretched condition. 
Those exhibited, however, told plainly that there are means 
by which amateurs may enjoy these rare and magnificent 
beauties of nature. When I stood admiring these plants, I 
did not believe that their culture could be surpassed by any 
degree of skill. Some time afterwards, however, when on 
a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew, my attention 
was suddenly arrested by a rich collection of Anccctochilus, 
of which all the species surpassed, by far, those which I 
had seen at the Chiswick exhibition. 
The foreman of the propagating dopartment, Mr. Han- 
nemann, was the grower of these extraordinary plants, and 
he very kindly communicated to me the means by which ho 
brought these plants to such admired perfection. Being 
convinced that this knowledge would ho of great use and 
pleasure to many amateurs, and wishing, at the same time, 
to contribute something to the embellishment of our hot¬ 
house, I subjoin a statement of the manner by which Mr. 
Hannemann’s essays have been crowned with success. The 
compost ho uses is one-third rough-chopped peat, one-third 
sand, and one-third chopped sphagnum (moss) ; to that 
compost is added a handful of horn, crushed to powder, 
and a few pieces of charcoal, to each pot. The plant is 
lightly potted in that compost, the pot is then plunged in 
another pot of a larger size, and the interval between the 
two pots is filled up with sphagnum, and on this outer pot a 
bell-glass is placed to secure the plant, which thus soon 
recovers from the effects of repotting. In this way the 
leaves, which constitute the only beauty of the plant, have ( 
room enough to spread themselves out on all sides. But 
the great secret of growing these plants to the utmost per¬ 
fection seems to he in keeping the sphagnum, or moss, ! 
which covers both pots, in a free-growing state all the year 
round, and as our native moss from the woods must be 
used, it is forced to grow so much, that the surface of the 
pots must be as regularly gone over as the best-managed 
lawn or piece of grass, to keep down the luxuriant growth 
which the heat, damp, and confined air are always stimu¬ 
lating. At the nursery of Mr. Jackson and Son, in Kingston, 
where this treatment has also been adopted, and where it 
is found to answer beyond their sanguine expectation, the 
Orchid grower, Mr. Davidson, keeps pans of living sphagnum 
growing in the house, on purpose to have some of it near 
him when he wants to repair any failure on the pots under 
the glasses, and for potting these plants at any season. 
Neither Mr. Davidson nor his kind employers make a secret 
of the ways they find best to manage the rare plants, for 
which they are to be much praised. Another thing which 
they have dicovered in the process of growing the Ancccto¬ 
chilus family is very curious, and most useful to know, 
which is, that the bell-glasses never require to be wiped, 
as, no matter how long they are in use over these plants, if 
the sphagnum is kept alive there is no mouldiness or any 
green slime ever seen on the inside of the glass, as is seen 
to be the case with glasses which are used over cuttings or 
seeds in the ordinary way. The reason for this constant 
cleanliness inside the glass, they believe to be, that the 
sphagnum consumes all the damp vapours which must rise 
from the gradual decomposition of the different parts com¬ 
posing the mixture in which the plants and sphagnum aro 
growing. When these damp vapours are loaded with the 
impurities from the compost, and when it is not thus con¬ 
sumed, as it is not in the pots of cuttings, it is so trouble¬ 
some to the propagator, by soiling the inside of his glasses, 
that he must have recourse to wiping them with a dry cloth i 
every day, or very often, or else the mouldiness would soon j 
spread, and involve liis cuttings in ruin. 
Mr. Davidson has been trying experiments, this winter, on 
purpose to prove how far the pure air, and cleanliness inside 
these glasses over the Anccctochili, may assist cuttings of 
rare plants to make roots more speedily than under glasses, 
without sphagnum, on the old system; and as far as we can 
yet judge, there is causo to believe that the living sphagnum 
is the greatest help to the propagator that has yet been 
discovered. Besides this, they have already proved to de¬ 
monstration that the whole race of these most beautiful¬ 
leaved plants which require bell-glasses to bo kept over 
them, cannot be grown with any degree of success if the 
moss or sphagnum is dead about them, and, no doubt, the 
purifying influence of the living sphagnum, as is proved by 
the cuttings, is the chief reason why the Anccctochili do so 
much better that way than on the older plan, with all the 
sphagnum dead and rotting about them, so as to make tho 
air too impure for a lively growth in such confined space 
as that covered by a bell-glass. Without glnsses it is not 
possible to imitate tho natural conditions under which these 
plants aro found; they form part of the vegetation which is 
capable of enduring the deep shades of trees and shrubs, 
and they are constantly surrounded by other low-growing 
plants of similar constitution, where neither sun or wind 
affect them much, so that they are always in a still, damp, 
hot, shaded atmosphere, which we can imitate only by the 
use of bell-glasses. We have also proved that liquid- 
manure from guano and other sources will excite them to 
