122 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AN1) COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 22, 1860. 
remains somewhat rare in gardens. The room which it occupies 
can only be spared in a few hothouses, but, nevertheless, it is 
decidedly the most beautiful of all the strong-growing kinds, and 
where it is desired to have a specimen plant wliich can stand out 
by itself, this is the one which should be selected. I have a vivid 
remembrance of one such plant, than which I have never in my 
whole life Been a more beautiful or graceful object. The pot in 
which it w'as grown was raised upon the trunk of an old tree set 
up as a pillar, and it had fourteen of its light green drooping 
fronds, each of which was at least nine feet in length. 
The name Cibotium means a little chest, and refers to the form 
of the indusium. There is only one other species in cultivation, 
C. Barometz, the traditional “Scythian Lamb,” which is a 
native of China and the East. 
Davaxlia i’entaphyjxa. Blume. (Synonymes— Scyphularia 
pentapliylla, Fee.) Fronds pinnate, usually with two pairs of 
pin me (occasionally three pairs), and a larger terminal one, coria¬ 
ceous, smooth, deep green, sinning; pinnaj lanceolate, slightly 
stalked, margin serrated. Fertile fronds rather narrower and 
fringed on the under side with the tubular cup-shaped indusia. 
Veins forking, with free venules. Stipes smooth, four inches 
long, articulated with the creeping rhizomes, which are thickly 
covered with narrow, brown, hair-like scales. 
This plant is a native of the Malayan Archipelago, and was 
introduced from Java some ten years ago by the Messrs. Rollison, 
to whose enterprising spirit we owe so many of our best Ferns. 
It is well adapted for cultivation in a basket, from which its 
rhizomes will depend in a most graceful manner. If grown in a 
pot it should be pegged upon the surface of a cone built up of 
rough pieces of fibrous peat. In common with many other 
creeping Ferns it does not like to have these rhizomes buried. It 
is a neat, small-growing, distinct species, well worthy of cul¬ 
tivation, but requiring stove temperature. 
Platyloha eotundifolia. J. Sm. Fronds linear, pinnate, 
drooping, about eighteen inches to two feet long; pinnee nearly 
all of one size—that is, about half an inch in length, roundish, or 
elliptical, cordate at the base, nearly sessile, leathery, shining, of 
a dark glossy-green colour, articulated with the raehis. The sori 
form a broad marginal band along the side of each pinna, par¬ 
tially protected by the reflexed edge of the frond. Veins forking; 
venules free and sporangiferous for nearly half their length. Stipes 
covered with brown scales, giving it a shaggy appearance. 
Bhizome creeping. 
This Fern was discovered many years ago in New Zealand by 
the celebrated botanical traveller, Allan Cunningham, who de¬ 
scribes it as growing in dry forests on the banks of the Ivana- 
Kana and Wycady Rivers, Bay of Islands, in company with 
Adiantum affine and Lygodium articulatum. Although intro¬ 
duced to our gardens soon after its discovery (1823), it is not vet 
so generally grown as it deserves to be. Its merits are that it 
is nearly hardy ; quite so, probably, in Devonshire, the Isle of 
Wight, and other favoured localities. It is very suitable for 
growth in a Wardian Case, and it makes a graceful and interest¬ 
ing basket or vase plant for the decoration of the conservatory. 
Its very appropriate name is derived from platys, broad, and 
loma , an edge or margin, referring to the sori.—K ael. 
THE CANARY AND THE BRITISH FINCHES. 
(Continued from page 89.) 
FANCY BREEDS. 
1st.— NoEwicn Birds. 
The Norwich Canaries are those most extensively kept and 
bred in this country. They are of the common size, rather short, 
stout-built birds, and usually quite clear from marking, either 
Jonque or Mealy in colour. 
Mr. Kidd remarks—" The two great places for the breeding of 
Canaries are Yorkshire and Norfolk. The birds which are raised 
in Yorkshire are not celebrated for their beauty, so much as for 
their strength, stamina, and song. The Norwich birds are of a 
line orange colour, but are more delicate.” 
Referring to the London dealers he says—“ They have their 
principal supplies sent up in autumn, at which time and until 
Clnlstmas they are busy as bees.” Of the birds he says—“They 
are sent up young and full of song, being generally placed in 
company of old song birds as soon as they are well fledged.” 
The Jonque, or Jonquil , as the name implies, is a rich yellow 
inclining to an orange tinge. The Mealy is white with a mix¬ 
ture of paler yellow or lemon. These two colours cannot be 
regarded as different breeds, because they are constantly bred to¬ 
gether ; it being a common maxim among Canary fanciers, that 
it is better to couple a Jonque cock with a Mealy hen, and vice 
versa , as it is alleged the produce of two Jonques are delicate 
and rotten-feathered, or rough and disordered in their plumage. 
Though from my own experience, I should rather attribute such 
defects to breeding in and in—that is, from birds too nearly 
related, because I have bred from two Jonques and never ex¬ 
perienced the inconvenience imputed to such a proceeding. 
I am not aware that these birds have any particular property, 
except it is their rich yellow colour; and they are bred in such 
numbers to supply the large demand, that they may be obtained 
at most reasonable prices; so that any one desiring a good 
singing bird may obtain one, or a pair, at small cost. The 
Jonque Norwich Canaries are very rich in colour, neat, and com¬ 
pact in shape, strong, hearty, and lively birds. They are also 
hardy, and require no coddling. They are good singers ; but, if 
anything, perhaps, are rather too noisy. Being so very plentiful, 
they are, however, not much cultivated by the higher order of 
fanciers; though they form the principal bulk of the mere bird- 
keeper’s stock, as well as being used by the fancier as nurses for 
the more tender and valuable varieties, as also for breeding and 
rearing Mules. 
There are, also, a few Picds of this sort, which are pretty as a 
change; but from the irregularity of their marking and not 
breeding true, they are of no value in the estimation of the 
fancier, except, those of a breed of Pieds, which by careful match¬ 
ing and breeding in and in, produce a majority of Pied young 
ones ; and these are bred almost entirely for Pied Goldfinch 
Mule breeding; or, as it is termed, they are Pied birds, “ bred 
down soft in colour.” 
2nd VARIETY. 
Quakers, Cinnamon, oe Dove. 
These, like the preceding, are simply a variety of colour, and 
though not so showy as the Jonque, arc valued higher on account 
of their being less common. In colour they arc of a reddish-grey 
brown, of a very pleasant soft colour, from which their various 
names of Quakers, Cinnamon, and Dove-coloured Canaries are 
derived. To be admired they should be whole-coloured, free 
from white feathers, and as near as may be of one uniform shade, 
though this varies ; being in some paler, in others more reddish, 
but generally preferred when tinged with a yellowish shade, 
when they are designated Cinnamon Jonques. 
3rd VARIETY. 
The Grass, oe Paeeot Green, ok Geeen Jonques. 
This beautiful variety is highly esteemed among fanciers on 
account of the brightness of its colour; but, at the same time, it 
is the rarest and most difficult to be obtained, and of late years 
they have almost become extinct. It is a common custom to call 
any common dark-coloured Canary that has a little green in its 
plumage a green Canary, but such are of no value. 
The fancy Green, or, as it is usually called, the Green Jonque, 
is, as its name implies, a bright grass-green, more like a green 
Parrot, darker and more vivid on the back, but yellower on the 
breast and under parts. There should be no grey on the back ; 
the quill-feathers of the wings and tail are dull black, but so 
widely edged with green that when closed the black is scarcely 
perceptible. Like the foregoing, they should be whole-c loured 
and not pied or patched. 
I believe the Jonque, Cinnamon, and Green, arc the only wl ole 
colours prized by fanciers. 
Marked, Pied, and patched birds, there are of all colours ; but 
however pretty they may appear to the eye of the novice, they 
are totally disregarded by the fancier, who requires not only 
beauty but regularity, and the property of reproducing the same 
marks in the offspring. —B. P. Brent. 
(To be continued.) 
Stoxhaed the Aetist, and the Butterfly. —The owners 
of many a name great in the arts have been enthusiastic collectors 
of butterflies. Our distinguished countryman, Thomas Stothard, 
was one of their devotees, and the following anecdote, extracted 
from his published life, shows how he was led to make them his 
special study:—“Stothard was beginning to paint the figure of 
a reclining sylph, when a difficulty arose in his own mind how 
best to represent such a being of fancy. A friend who was 
