390 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 18 . 
I 
it may be interesting to have its history, I will relate it as 
far as it is known to me. 
Last Christmas I forwarded to this gentleman a dark 
Dorking cockerel, and in acknowledging its receipt, he 
stated—“ We have received the cockerel safely, he is truly a 
magnificent fellow, and has our unqualified admiration. We 
have ordered three pullets from Bailey’s to mate with him.” 
Some time after, in March, he wrote to me, stating that one 
of these three pullets had become very red and large in the 
comb and wattles, and had not laid ; that he suspected some 
disease, and had, therefore, forwarded the bird to me. 
On receiving the fowl, 1 found that it was not ill, but was 
| of the most vivid brightness in the comb. Its present 
; appearance may be briefly described. The shape and 
I carriage of the body, the plumage of the hackle and tail, 
are precisely those of a hen. The head, which is extremely 
beautiful, resembles that of the cock, being furnished with a 
single comb nearly four inches in length, from front to back, 
and wattles two inches long. The general bearing is that of a 
male bird; he calls the hens when he finds a worm, which is 
immediately surrendered to them, and he chases the young 
cockerels about the yard, where he reigns paramount. 
Formerly he was the object of persecution of a heavy 
Dorking cock, which has latterly been removed from the run. 
My own opinion of his internal structure is, that he is a 
male bird, with some peculiar arrest of development in the 
plumage, and that he is, therefore, totally distinct from a 
crowing hen. I regard him as somewhat akin to those 
varieties of Game cocks formerly termed Hennies, and 1 
intend to try whether the breed is capable of continuance, 
and am anxiously looking for the period of moulting, to 
see what change it will effect in his plumage. 
Thinking that some of your readers may be interested in 
the case, I have entered him in the Surrey show, and will 
forward with him a hen, with that condition of the ovary 
before alluded to, so that what I regard as a true hen cock, 
may be compared with a mere crowing hen. I would 
mention, that the plumage of the hen cock is not in the 
cleanest possible condition, as during the time he was in 
town to be daguerreotyped, by Mr. Sheehan, of Bramah 
I’outra notoriety, he stepped into a paint-pot, the contents 
of which have hardly worn off. 
Another point which I may allude to, is the condition of 
these two birds ; should they continue in the state in which 
they are at present, it may, perhaps, prove to some who are 
sceptical on the point, that neither meat, peas, hemp seed, 
or greaves, are necessary to keep fowls in the highest 
possible health and condition.—W. B. Tegetmeieb, Tot¬ 
tenham. 
DICLYTRA, NOT DIELYTRA. 
I becollect, some twenty years since, seeing, in cor¬ 
rections for the first edition of the “ Encyclopaedia of 
Plants,” which were sent to Mr. Loudon, that this genus 
ought to be spelled Diclytra, with the accent on the i (see 
I Gardeners' Magazine, 1832, page 367). Mr. Loudon de¬ 
fended the former reading, by stating that Sir William 
Hooker, “in his ‘ Botanical Magazine, 1 No. 3031, remarks : 
—Diclytra is from dis, twice, and elytron, a cover; in allusion 
to the two petals terminating in a box or pouch. It is by 
mistake often spelled Diclytra.” The question about the 
right spelling was again mooted two or three times since, 
but a correspondent, in a recent number of the Gardener's 
Chronicle has set the question at rest, by a transcription 
from the original paper in which the genus was proposed. 
This shows that we were all wrong, and that Diclytra is the 
proper name; but let me give the paragraph in full, 
i “ The questio vexala is solved beyond all possibility of 
! doubt on reference to the original paper in which the genus 
was proposed. In the second part of the first volume of 
Homer's Arckiv.fur die Botanik, page 43, 1797, is a paper on 
the genus Fumaria, by Dr. Moritz Balthazar Borckhausen, 
■ of Darmstadt. Amongst other genera, lie proposes that of 
Diclytra , for Fumaria cucularia, L., resting its characters on 
the peculiar structure of the corolla, and the six distinct 
stamens.” He adds, especially—“ I have named the genus 
from <ris, two, and KAurpou, a spur, because the flower is so 
clearly distinguished by its two spurs.” Now, in the middle 
of the nineteenth, besides giving in to the true name, I 
would add, “ especially,” that it would be right and proper 
to have a law to compel the manufacturers of hard names 
to give out the derivation of them, as Dr. Borckhausen, of 
Darmstadt, did with this, in 1797.—D. Beaton. 
CRYSTAL PALACE IN NEW YORK. 
Resebvotb Squaee, on which it is erected, lies at the 
northern extremity of the city, west of the Croton Distributing 
Reservoir, and between that mighty mass of stone and the 
Sixth avenue. The precise distance from the Reservoir to 
the Sixth avenue is 445 feet, and the width, north and south, 
from Fortieth to Forty-second street, is 455 feet. 
The main features of the building are as follows:—It is, 
with the exception of the floor, roof, and a portion of the 
dome, entirely constructed of iron and glass. The general 
idea of the edifice is a Greek cross, surmounted by a dome 
at the intersection. Each diameter of the cross will be 365 
feet five inches long. There are three similar entrances— 
one on the Sixth avenue, one on Fortieth 1 and one on Forty- 
second street. Each entrance is 47 feet wide, and that on 
the Sixth avenue is approached by a flight of eight steps; 
over each front is a large semi-circular fanlight, 41 feet wide 
and 21 feet high, answering to the arch of the nave. Each 
i arm of the cross is on the ground plan 149 feet broad. 
This is divided into a central nave and two aisles, one on 
each side; the nave 41 feet wide, each aisle 54 feet wide. 
The central portion or nave is carried up to the height of 
07 feet, and the semi-circular arch by which it is spanned is 
41 feet broad. There are thus in effect two arched naves 
crossing each other at right angles, 41 feet broad, 07 feet 
high to the crown of the arch, and 305 feet long; and on 
each side of these naves is an aisle 54 feet broad, and 45 
feet high. The exterior of the ridgeway of the nave is 71 
feet. Each aisle is covered by a gallery of its own width, 
and 24 feet from the floor. The central dome is 100 feet in 
diameter, 08 feet inside from the lloor to the spring of the 
arch, and 118 feet to the crown; and on the outside, with 
the lantern, 149 feet. The exterior angles of the building 
are ingeniously filled up with a triangular lean-to 24 feet 
high, which gives the ground plan an octagonal shape, each 
side or face being 149 feet wide. At each angle is an 
octagonal tower eight feet in diameter and 75 feet high. 
Ten large, and eight winding, staircases connect the 
principal floor with the gallery, which opens on the three 
balconies that are situated over the entrance-halls, and 
afford ample space for flower decorations, statues, vases, Ac. I 
The ten principal staircases consist of two flights of steps j 
with two landing places to each; the eight winding staircases j 
are placed in the octagonal towers, which lead also to small ! 
balconies on the tops of the towers and to the roof of the 
building. 
The building contains on the ground floor 11,000 square 
feet of space, and in its galleries, which are 54 feet wide, 
62,000 square feet more, making a total area 173,000 square 
feet for the purposes of exhibition. There are thus on the 
ground lloor two acres and a half, or exactly 2 52-100; in 
the galleries one acre and 44-100; total, within an incon¬ 
siderable fraction, four acres. 
There arc on the ground floor 190 octagonal cast iron 
columns 21 feet above the floor, and eight inches diameter, ! 
cast hollow, of different thicknesses, from half an inch to 
one inch. These columns receive the cast iron girders. 
These are 26§ feet long and 3 feet high, and serve to sustain 
the galleries and the wrought iron construction of the roof, 
as well as to brace the wdiole structure in every direction. 
The girders, as well as the second story columns, are 
fastened to the columns in the first story by connecting 
pieces of the same octagonal shape as the columns, 3 feet 
four inches high, having proper llanges and lugs to fasten 
all pieces together by bolts. The number of lower floor 
girders is 252, besides 12 wrought iron girders of the same 
height, and 41 feet span over a part of the nave. The 
second story contains 148 columns, of the same shape as 
those below, and 17 feet 7 inches high. These receive 
another tier of girders, numbering 160, for the support of 
