408 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 17. 
Tirst, as to shape : the body of the Poland is very round, 
tapering somewliat suddenly near the tail; the breast is 
remarkably round and protruberant, “ more so," observes 
Mr. Bailey, “than in any other fowl except the Bantam;” 
the neck is a characteristic and striking feature ; it is not 
only long, but is of extraordinary thickness and fulness, and 
most profusely covered with voluminous hackle feathers; 
whilst in carriage it is upright, bold, and dashing. In the 
beardless variety there is a most perceptible modification 
and contrast, in a word, a very near approach to the 
Spangled Hamburgh. The characteristic prominency and 
roundness of the breast is lessened, the body being nar¬ 
rowed, lengthened, and gradually tapering to the tail, the 
feathers of rvhich, as observable in the hen, are, like those of 
the Hamburgh, very much longer than in the true or bearded 
Poland. The neck presents a striking difierence; all that 
general volume of the neck is gone, and it is thin, spare of 
feathers, and meagre; in size and proportion it is wanting. 
Though, as I have said, the marking of the plumage 
affords us no help in tracing tlio Beardless Poland to its 
connection with the Spangled Hamburgh, they being very 
similarly spangled, yet the nature, fabric, or material of the 
feathers differ, and affords assistance in defining the dif¬ 
ference between the true Bearded Poland and the hybrid 
one. Thus, let any one handle a true Golden Poland here, 
and he will be struck with the I’emarkably soft, silky, yield¬ 
ing quantity of feathers, it is so peculiar, that at this moment 
I can recall the surprise on my first handling one; while 
the feel or sensation communicated by the beardless fowls 
is like the Hamburgh, a comparative closeness and hard¬ 
ness of feather, there being nearly as great a ditference in 
this respect as there is between the feel of a Shanghae and 
a Malay; such difference in the character of feathers in 
various fowls is well noticed by Mr. Bailey, and a very 
distinctive character it is. 
Again, the top-knot in a great majority of beardless 
Polands (especially in the Golden) is insignificant. It is, 
I believe, invariably so in imported birds ; but within the 
last year or two there have been raised, in this kingdom, 
some Silver beardless Polands with topknots of fair size. 
The golden, however, so far as I have seen at exhibitions, 
or heard of, still remain in statu quo, waiting some lucky hit 
or cross with the bearded to give them topknots, and to 
reduce their abundant, plated, pointed combs. 
It is important to notice that, in breeding beardless 
Polands the greatest uncertainty prevails as to the quality 
of the chickens. In some chickens which I last year raised 
from the very best specimens of beardless Silver Polands, 
there was a very near approach to the rose-comb of the 
Spangled Hamburghs; nn uneven, serrated, protuberant, 
and large plate of tlesh terminating in a point with a mere 
tuft of feathers for a topknot, whilst a very few had topknots 
equal in size to the parents. It is, indeed, a fact, as important 
as it is strikiny, that while the chickens of the true bearded 
Poland have invariably larye and full-sized topknots, the pro¬ 
duce, on the contrary, of the beardless Polands evince all the 
uncertainty and anomaly above staled. 
How is this ? Why, I ask, should one be all certainty, 
the other uncertainty ? The answer is clear, plain, and 
convincing enough; the beardless Polands being spurious, 
hybrid, now the Polish, now the Hamburgh blood or typo 
prevails, so that in the one instance we have topknot, in the 
other scarcely any, but with development of comb. For it 
is a fact well known to breeders, that all cross-bred birds exhibit 
such constant tendency to lean to one parental origin or the 
other; as they term it, ‘■'they cry back." 
Thus have I shown that the beardless Poland is dege¬ 
nerate in shape, specially and- generally, also in carriage, 
bearing, or deportment, and in its feathers; whilst the quality 
or character of its produce, or chickens, are ever varying 
and uncertain. 
But what, on the other hand, has been urged against 
boards ? Simple dislike. A whisper has, indeed, gone forth, 
which no one, however, will own to, that the beard is from a 
cross with the Russian fowl! In sober truth, the Poland 
has no one character of the Russian: not even in the so- 
called beard is there any resemblance. For, whilst the 
beard of the Russian is a long tuft, looking like a hanging 
bag of feathers, the beard of the Poland consists of imbri- I 
cated feathers, scarcely longer than the rest on the throat, ' 
and closely, compactly, and definitively arranged in a trian¬ 
gular shape, the base (extending in a lino with the bill to 
the ears) being uppermost; it has nothing in common with 
the bearded tuft of the Russian, or of any other fowl. It is 
truly sui generis —true in its own kind—and an inborn, iubred 
characteristic of a true Poland. 
In conclusion, I beg to say, that although I now write as 
a partizan of the bearded Poland (and coincide with the 
opinions of such experienced gentlemen as Mr. Vivian, as 
well as of Mr. Baker, of London, and others), it was only 
after mature retleelion, observation, and experience on both 
varieties, kept at the same lime, and in equal numbers, that 
the conviction was forced upon me, that the bearded are 
the true Polands, and that the beardless are spurious.— 
F. R. lIOItNEU. 
THE SPONTANEOUS GROWTH OE PLANTS. 
We are now ariived at a period of the year when all the 
organic works of God, in our happy country, begin to either 
revive from their winter torpor, or to move with increasing 
vigour. It is now that every sunny morning draws us forth 
into the garden. Borders are explored in all directions; 
old jjots of neglected plants hopefully examined, and a 
reviving taste felt in even the parlour of the citizen for 
floral beauties. Hawkers of flowers and shrubs are now 
becoming active ; every scrap of a garden is receiving the 
general attention which spring alone witnesses. In such 
examinations, after the severe weather we have had, many a 
favourite shrub will have perished, many a border of tender 
plant.s, whose self-sown seeds from year to year seem to 
bloom for their own especial satisfaction, will be absent; 
but as the old alchemists used to say, “ nature seems to abhor 
a vacuum," and so other plants will be found in their place : 
some appearing in various single varieties, others in masses 
crowding out of the soil, as if their seeds had been sown by 
handfuls. 
The philosophers of the olden time noticed these things, 
and they reasoned upon the phenomena;—as they were 
usually wont to do they employed much verbiage, but 
held facts as of less importance. The result of this mode 
of attempting to arrive at truth was, that tliey concluded 
that the appearance of these plants whose seeds they had 
not sown, arose from “ spontaneous generation." Yes, 
that wa.s the phrase. It is idle to seek in their works for 
the meaning of the term “ spontaneous generation," since 
it is evident they did not understand it themselves. It 
will he a more useful course if we examine the labours 
of the modern chemical philosopher, and the experiments 
which he has instituted to explain the cause of phenomena 
so familiar to us all. Indeed, as I have in another place 
had occasion to remark, the doctrine of spontaneous gene¬ 
ration, as Dr. John Walker well observed in a letter to Lord 
Karnes {Memoir, vol. ii., app., p. 50), is a doctrine that can 
only subsist where human knowledge and human under¬ 
standing are but in a glimmering state. In such a state, 
philosophers saw mites generated from rotten cheese, and 
myriads of flies and creeping things arise from a dunghill 
or putrid marsh. Ignorant of the natural history and gene¬ 
ration of these animals, they concluded them to be mere 
spontaneous productions, and the effects not of generation I 
but of corruption ! To add to their folly, the degrading j 
doctrine never was extended to a lion or a horse, but con- ' 
fined to the poor insects, merely because they were creatures 
of whose nature they were ignorant. They knew not that 
the same poiver and wisdom were necessary to form a 
maggot that are requisite to produce an elephant. They 
formed the same conclusion concerning many vegetables 
w'hose seed escaped their eyes, such as the ferns, mush¬ 
rooms, and mosses. Because they did not see the seeds of 
such vegetables, they readily concluded that they had none; 
and while the oak and the laurel were dignified with gene¬ 
rative qualities, these' plants were classed as the progeny of 
putridity. Equivocal generation thus readily became the 
asylum of their ignorance. 
It is true that many phenomena of vegetable life, in cases 
like these, startle and confound us. The many lands of 
I the Essex side of the valley of the Thames, if ploughed 
i only an inch or two deeper than usual, abound immediately 
