May - 29. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
151 
bloom Cypripedium insignis abundantly, it must be a weW- 
grown, large plant. Though an Orchid, and a native of Nepaul, 
it does not require great heat. Where it is grown in a high 
temperature it does notitower freely. The rightheat is 60° to 
05° in summer, and 50° to 55° in winter. The highest heat 
to be in the middle of the day, and the least at night. It 
should be potted about this time in an open compost of 
fibry peat two parts, turfy loam one part, and half-decayed 
leaves one part. The whole mixed with small crocks and 
pieces of charcoal. It should be grown in rather large pots, 
well drained; and when growing should have a liberal supply 
of water, but through the winter it should be kept only just 
moist enough to keep it from flagging. This, with the 
lower temperature, gives it a rest, and then it flowers 
certain out of every shoot. We have seen a plant, so 
managed, with upwards of twenty of its large, beautiful 
flowers expanded at once, and continuing in bloom for two 
months. That plant measured a foot-and-a-lialf across, 
and was growing in a 12-inch pot. Like all other Orchids, 
it requires three seasons—one of growth, one to bloom, and 
one of rest. A small plant cannot, by any management, 
produce many flowers. You must wait patiently, and grow 
your plant, if small, several years before you can have 
flowers abundantly.] 
POULTRY. 
DEATH OF A GAME COCK. 
“ Yesterday a fine Game cock, which had always been 
very healthy, was found dead in the walk close by my stables, 
and thinking that some unfair means had been employed 
by some neighbours to get rid of a customer which they 
could not vanquish in any other way, induced me to open 
it. I found the head gorged with blood, and the neck 
adjoining also very much discoloured, the heart enlarged, 
and the surrounding parts of a dark colour, with some 
effusion of blood also dark coloured; the contents of the 
crop, or stomach, appeared to be healthy, no substance 
of a poisonous nature, that I could detect. There was 
also a substance (which I enclose) found in the intes¬ 
tines near the vent. I ought to say, that a week or two ago 
the bird was seized with something like a fit, or appeared 
as though he had been hit with a stone, he could not stand 
properly without occasionally falling on his side. A few 
days ago, also, he appeared to be very drowsy and moping, 
going about by himself, and standing for some time with his 
head down, and his feathers ruffled, as though he was 
affected by roup, but this was not the case. I ordered him 
some medicine as an aperient, and he appeared all right 
again yesterday morning when he was turned out, crowing 
and strutting about in his usual way, but about twelve o’clock 
he was found as I have before stated, dead, without any 
external marks of violence, and I should feel obliged by your 
opinion as to the cause of death. Could it be the result of 
a blow ? or would these appearances arise from apoplexy ?— 
A Subscriber." 
[We have little or no doubt the Game cock died from 
apoplexy, and that this arose from effusion of blood upon 
the brain. The enlargement of the heart is not at all un¬ 
usual in birds that have been frequently subject to high 
excitement, as your Game cock seems to have been. The 
substance found in the intestines appears to be food im¬ 
perfectly digested. If your bird was very fat, and highly 
fed, this would hasten the catastrophe. The best treatment 
for a bird showing apoplectic symptoms, such as reeling and 
want of command over its legs, is to keep that bird in a 
dimly-lighted, cool place, and to feed it upon a limited 
quantity of soft, unnutritious food, such as boiled rice, and 
boiled potatoes, with a daily allowance of green food. 
Exposure to bright light, excitement with hens, and crowing, 
were all against the Game cock.] 
THE WOODS OF AUSTRALIA. 
{Continued from page 130.) 
The common use of the wood of the cedar (Cedrela 
Australis) in joiners’ and cabinet work, and its extensive 
exportation to the neighbouring colonies, and to Europe, 
have induced the sawyers to penetrate into every nook from 
whence sawn timber could be dragged out. But, in seeking 
out this particular tree, they would appear to have neglected 
all the rest. The most experienced among them have no 
names for a great number, and can give little information to 
be relied on with regard to the qualities of their timber. 
They have been in the habit of confounding together nu¬ 
merous species, under the general designation of “ brush 
trees.” It requires careful and laborious investigation, on 
the part of a stranger in these brushes, to distinguish trees, 
even of very different families. Their foliage is often so far 
overhead, and so intermingled with that of neighbouring 
trees and climbers; their trunks are so covered with epi¬ 
phytes, and the light is so imperfect, that the tree often 
requires to be cut down to determine its identity. Even then, 
it becomes further requisite to cut down several of the 
neighbouring trees, which have their branches attached to 
it by the “ bush ropes,” before the tree will fall and bring 
the foliage within the explorer’s reach. The uncertainty of 
their periods of flowering and fruiting give rise to further 
difficulty. On the present occasion, although they have 
been repeatedly examined, at short intervals, over a period 
of six months, comprising the seasons at which they might 
be expected to show flowers or fruit, it is remai'kable how 
few have been detected in a fertile state. These few forming 
the exception rather than the rule, with the particular 
species to which they belong, it would appear to be certain 
that the great majority of the trees of this class do not 
flower every year, and many of them only at long intervals. 
In proof of the intimate intermixture of many kinds of 
trees, it may be stated that, skirting a narrow track through 
a cedar brush for about half-a-mile, more than sixty species 
were observed, all growing within twenty or twenty-five yards 
of the track. Of these, above three-fourths were of the 
stature of trees. It may be remarked, also, that no two 
brashes resemble each other precisely. Fresh species of 
trees make their appearance in each succeeding brush, whilst 
others disappear. This characteristic seems to prevail, 
wherever an opportunity of examining them closely has been 
afforded. The timber of the trees of this class differs re¬ 
markably from Class A. The grain is much finer; it is 
also, for the most part, sound at heart; and the heart wood, 
if not shaken in the fall of the tree, may be used, as is the 
case with the timber-trees of Europe. Even when of very 
large size, and not sound at the butt, they are usually per¬ 
fectly so a little higher up. They differ generally, also, 
from the trees of Class A, in splitting most freely the 
“ bursting way." Although their qualities be so little 
known, it is not to be doubted that some of them would 
prove of great value. The very imperfect collection of 
them, which has been made on this occasion, affords evi¬ 
dence that some possess considerable beauty. At the same 
time, it should be observed, that the timber of a consider¬ 
able portion is not durable when exposed to the weather or 
to damp; and that, as a class, they are, neither for strength 
nor lasting qualities, to be compared with the numerous, 
more coarsely grained, but almost imperishable woods of 
Class A. 
It is to be regretted that, in offering for the first time to 
the European world a considerable number of the woods of 
Australia, so little time should have been available for col¬ 
lecting them. Instead of six months, two or three years 
would scarcely have sufficed to form a tolerable collection. 
The necessity, which on the present occasion had existed, of 
cutting them down whether the season was favourable or 
not; their exposure immediately afterwards in the sap, and 
frequently for many weeks, to the action of sun and wind 
during a season of unusual dryness and aridity, has been 
injurious to the majority of them, and has caused some 
valuable timbers to assume a very unfavourable appearance. 
Some of the woods with the closest grain require to be 
steeped in water for several weeks immediately after being 
cut down and sawn up, and afterwards to be carefully dried 
in the shade. In forming this collection, no precaution to 
prevent damage from the weather has, for the most part, 
been available. In other respects, the shortness of the 
period which could be devoted to the object, the limited 
funds at command, combined with the difficulty of procuring 
labour, have all operated to prevent it from representing 
