August 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
387 
and hen, one year eaeh ; hen, age unknown. Second prize, W. Eastlake, 
Esq., Mannamead, Plymouth. Cock and hens. Age, eight months and 
two weeks. 
ClassVI.—(COCHIN-CHINA CHICKEN.—BUFF OR CINNAMON. 
For the best Cockerel and two Pullets of 1853.) 
First prize, Mr. W. L. Channing, Heavitree, near Exeter. Age, five 
months. Second prize, II. Daw, Esq., Mount Radford, Exeter. Age, 
four months. Second prize, R. T. Head, Esq., The Briars, Alphington, 
near Exeter, Devon. Age, six months. 
Class VIII.—COCHIN-CHINA CHICKENS —DARK. (For the best 
Cockerel and two Pullets.) 
First prize, Mr. John O. Backwell, 99, Navy Row, Devonport. Age, 
four months and two weeks. Second prize, Mr. William Brown, Redgate 
Farm, Shute, Devon. Age, four months and two weeks. 
Class XII.—GAME CHICKEN. (For the best Cockerel and two 
Pullets of 1853.) 
First prize, Paul Ourry Treby, Esq., Goodamoor, near l’lympton, 
Devon. Age, three months and three days. (Black red.) 
Class XIX.—SILVER-PENCILLED HAMBURGH. (For the best 
Cock and two Hens of any age.) 
Second prize, W. C. Hodge, Esq., Crescent, Plymouth, Devon. Age, 
one year aud two months. 
Class XXIV. —SILVER-SPANGLED HAMBURGH CHICKEN. 
(For the best Cockerel and two Pullets.) 
Second prize, Mr. Edward Burton, Trcgolls Cottage, Truro, Cornwall. 
Age, two months. 
Class XXVIII.—SILVER-SPANGLED POLAND CHICKEN. (For 
the best Cockerel and two Pullets of 1853.) 
Second prize, Mr. W. George Courtis, 4, Lipson Terrace, Plymouth. 
Age, two months and twenty-one days. 
Class XXXIX.—BLACK BANTAMS. 
Second prize, Mr. W. Connett, Magdalene Bridge, Exeter. Age, two 
years. 
Class XLI.—DUCKS.—WHITE AYLESBURY. (For the best Drake 
and two Ducks of any age.) 
First prize, Mr. William Brown, Redgate Farm, Shute, Devonshire. 
Age, Drake nineteen weeks. Ducks, ea?h two years. Second prize, Mr. 
William Brown, Redgate Farm, Shute, Devonshire. Age, two mouths. 
Class XLIII.—DUCKS.—MUSCOVY. (For the best Drake and two 
Ducks of any age.) 
Second prize, Mrs. St. John, Ideford Rectory, Chudleigh, Devon. Age, 
Drake three years. Ducks, eighteen months. 
Class XLVII.—PIGEONS.—CARRIERS. (For the best Pair.) 
First prize, W. J. Square, Esq., 14, Portland Square, Plymouth. , 
Class XLIX.—BEST PAIR OF POUTERS OR CROPPERS. 
First prize, Thomas Jeffry, Bath Street, Plymouth. Age, two years. 
Class LI.—BEST PAIR OF FANTAILS. 
First prize, Frederick C. Bryant, Esq., 2, Lipson Terrace, Plymouth. 
Age unknown. 
Class LII.—BEST PAIR OF JACOBINS, OR CAPPERS. 
First prize, Mr. William Beer, 20, Tavistock Street, Stoke. Age, 
eighteen months. 
Class LIII.—BEST PAIR OF TRUMPETERS. 
First prize, Mr. Edward Burton, Tregolls Cottage, Truro, Cornwall. 
(White.) Age, two years. 
Class LIV.—BEST PAIR OF ALMOND OR ERMINE TUMBLERS. 
First prize, Mr. W. L. Channing, Heavitree, near Exeter. (Almond.) 
Age, one year. 
SHRUBLAND PET GERANIUM. 
1 have had twelve plants of “Shrublalid Pet” Geranium 
turned out about two months. The plants are strong, 
compact, and vigorous ; very healthy, and the foliage is very 
beautiful, hut at present there is no blossom; there may he 
one or two buds, hut ^ot more, on all the plants. 
There are two or three dozen plants now at the nursery 
whence mine were procured, which have been kept in pots, 
and on which there are about a dozen blossoms. Can you 
explain this? 
From Mr Beaton’s account of his pet, I expected, at 
least, to have, plenty of bloom, although each flower might 
be small. I looked, in short, for a diminutive Unique. 
Ought there not to be an agreable scent in the leaves? 
W ill you oblige me with your opinion on the above, with 
a short description of the genuine plant, as it may be that 
mine is only an imitation, although, from the respectability 
of the place whence I had it, such is hardly likely to be the 
case. Indeed. I believe the original plant came from 
Messrs. Hendersons’. 
The flower on those I have seen is very small and 
insignificant.—H. P., Norwich, 
[I am rather pleased than not, that I have this opportunity 
of winding up the story about the Shrub land Pel , and more 
so,, as the above letter is from a Norwich Correspondent, 
because it was named by a lady in that quarter, who saw it 
at Shrubland, in the little bed where it was the gem of that 
season, and was admired by every one who saw it. Still, if 
I had remained longer in that garden, no one had ever 
heard a complaint about this plant, as no one who did not 
admire it on the spot would have received a cutting of it as 
long as it was in any hands. All who know me must know 
that every one of my seedlings were given away without 
money, or any other consideration whatever, and that if ever 
I recommended any of my pets it was always with this pro¬ 
vision—“ Unless you like it when you see the )havers, I shall 
fake it hack again.” Surely, then, under such circumstances, 
I could do just what 1 liked, as if the plants were my own, 
as they certainly were not, but the property of my worthy 
employers, who never interfered with me in the least about 
all my seedlings, further than showing their pleasure when 
I had anything new or good, or that any one of their friends 
admired, whether it was good or not, so that they could give 
or promise cuttings of them to such friends or visitors. 
Well, then, in one of my appeals to amateurs and young 
gardeners on the subject of cross-breeding, not on the 
subject of flower-gardening, I mentioned the Shrubland Pet 
as much and more for the purpose of stimulating them in 
pursuit of a very different cross, that of Capitatum and 
Unique (see vol. vii., page 230) ; and I had no more idea 
then that what I said would have been tinned to an un¬ 
worthy purpose, for the sake of worldly gain, than that I 
should dine with the man in the moon. The worst that 1 
could anticipate then was, that the plant would be returned 
on my hands if I gave away a cutting of it on my own 
recommendation; and even that I could hardly expect. No 
one returned Punch, but many could do no good with it, and 
still I maintain it is the best of that strain where the soil 
suits it; and I do the same about the Shrubland Pet in its 
particular strain. But when I saw that four persons, in 
different parts of the country, came forward to claim the 
credit of having had Shrubland Pet from seeds before me, 
I mentioned the fact in these pages, and washed my hands 
of it, and now I am too old and too independent to alloiv it to 
be even supposed that I ever said a "word about it, or about 
any other seedling or plant, upon selfish motives. Surely, 
I may be excused, therefore, for not volunteering a gratui¬ 
tous opinion of it as a trade plant last year, after learning 
that Mr. Henderson, of the Wellington Hoad Nursery, had 
given twenty guineas for the stock of it. I may now say, 
that four distinct plants go under the name of Shrubland 
Pet; that three of them are not true. The true one is a 
rosy-purple small flower; and if the kind is planted in poor 
dry soil it will give as much satisfaction, to those who like 
that style, as Punch, on similar soil, gives to others. But it 
was as one link in the great chain of hybridizing that I 
looked favourably on the Shrubland Pet, and I shall always 
back it in the strain to which it belongs until we have a 
better one. 
We refuse in these pages lists of plants, over and over 
again, to correspondents, because we have no standard 
whereby we can be sure to please all tastes, or to suit all 
soils. Here is H. P., for instance, at Norwich, who de¬ 
scribes this flower as “small and insignificant;” yet I could 
give him the names of a lady aud a gardener, who take 
many prizes at that very place, and who called a bed of it 
“ the most charming little thing of the season,” and the two 
had cuttings of it from me long before Mr. Henderson 
bought it. Perhaps we are all right.—D. Beaton.] 
CROSS BETWEEN SHANGHAE AND SPANISH 
FOWLS. 
In page 114 of The Poultry Book, 1 find the words, “it 
has been proposed to try a cross between the Spanish and 
Shanghae; ” and, in consequence, I beg to forward you the 
result of the cross ; I having, on the 21st of August, 1852, 
purchased from a poulterer in this island, three birds, one 
