379 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEYTAN, September 18, 1860. 
Cuttings (if. P. Leech). —You will find full directions for making 
cuttings in “ Florists Flowers for the Many.” Any question on any point 
not clearly understood by you we shall readily answer in these columns. 
Planting Pampas Grass (T V . JL . B .).— April is the best time to plant 
the Pampas Grass, and a dry sandy loam is the best soil for it. 
Vinks (T. Jagger). —In addition to the Hamburghs you may have of 
white Grapes 2 Grove End Sweetwater , 2 Royal Muscadine , and 1 Early 
Summer Muscat . 
Smell of Gas ( W. D .).—It is impossible for us to explain how such a 
smell escapes from your pit flue since you say that it does not emit smoke. 
Probably, either you use coke badly made at the gas works, or ashes from 
those works were employed in constructing the flue. In either case a very 
small opening into the flue would allow the fumes to penetrate invisibly 
into the pit. Has any part of the pit been painted with gas tar ? In the 
event of any of these* being the cause your only remedy is to remove that 
cause entirely. 
Bishop Auckland Horticultural Show. — So long as your cor¬ 
respondent] “R. C.” confined his remarks to the local papers it was un¬ 
heeded by me, but The Cottage Gardener is read by friends in the 
north and south, whose good opinion I value; therefore, pray allow me 
a word of explanation. Three years ago, a short time previous to the 
Bishop Auckland Flower Show’, and soon after receiving my present 
charge, I was waited upon by a party from the Committee requesting me to 
exhibit; for reasons which I do not care to tell, I did not do so that season. 
Last year I did exhibit, and was awarded the head prize for stove and 
greenhouse plants—a £10 cup. In the interval an alteration in the schedule 
was effected, which brought the Southend plants down to a level with others 
in the neighbourhood. At the Exhibition this year our plants again got 
the £10 cup with greater ease than before. Three of the plants exhibited 
were free-growing stove creepers, and a knowledge of their cultivation 
only is necessary to know, that they could not be at an exhibition “ three 
or four years back,” with any part of the growth they now possess. The 
statement is also insulting to the exhibitors of this and the neighbouring 
county. If our plants have been going back, what must others have been 
doing ? Was there no one to come forward and beat those degenerate 
plants ? The question has yet to be answered in the affirmative, and no one 
w ill give the winner of next year’s prize a more hearty shake of the hand 
than I will, should he do so in a fair and upright manner.— John Richard¬ 
son, Gardener to Joseph Pease , Esq., Southend , Darlington, 
Apples and Pears ( V. P . T .)—In addition to those which you have, the 
Apples to suit your situation near Wells, Somerset, will be Early Harvest, 
Devonshire Quarrenden, Keswick Codlin, Claygate Pearmain, Cox’s Orange 
Pippin, Bedfordshire Foundling, Wormsley Pippin, Ashmead’s Kernel, 
Cockle Pippin, Nonpareil, Stunner Pippin, Ilambledon Deux Ans. And 
of Pears: —Doyenne d’Ete, Jargonelle, Beurrd Giffard, Williams’ Bon 
Chretien, Seckle, Beurrd Hardy, Baronne de Mello, Soldat Esperen, Ilen- 
riette Bouvier, Glou Morceau, Josephine dc Malines, Bergamotte Esperen. 
Sauromatum ferox (-).—Our correspondent wishes to know if this 
is as fine a plant as described by M. Van Iloutte. We shall be obliged by 
information, for we have not seen this ferox yet. The first two of these 
Sauromatums are very queer-looking Arums of the old school, called 
guttatum and punctatum, {flie beauty of the flowers of most Arums, if ; 
they have any, is in the markings of their Highland plaids, which wind j 
round them in the form of hoods or cowls; and no one knows how to | 
describe, things of many colours better than M. Louis Van Houtte—his 
descriptions that way may be relied on. 
Sowing Purple Orach (J. R. TV ,).— One good way of sowing Purple j 
Orach for the flower garden would bf*, for one to go to a newly hoed and I 
rJked piece of ground in a shrubbery, to take a quarter handful of the j 
seeds, and to throw them broadcast -with all one’s might at one throw, to ; 
rake the ground that afternoon, and to take an excursion ticket to see the ; 
sights in Italy and Egypt, to be back here by the end of April, to prick out j 
the seedlings, and do them as Mr. Henderson, of Trentham, says for the I 
rest of the season. But as Mr. Henderson has done them for one purpose, i 
and Mr. Miller for a very different purpose, and as Mr. Beaton has never 
done them himself or seen others doing them, he longs to have an oppor¬ 
tunity of saying to Mr, Henderson, ** Muckle obleeged to ye for red Spinage ! 
seeds; I’ll do them just as ye say.” (See page 352.) 
Gay Annuals for Sowing in September [Ja ne). —The best and gayest 
annuals to sow in September for spring work, are the Collinsias, Nemophilas, 
Clurkias, Leptosiphons, (Enotlieras alias Godetias, Gilias, Erysimum, 
Helenium, Platystemon, Silene pendula , Saponaria calabrica the lace¬ 
looking flowers, Virginian Stocks, the best purple Candytuft, and best j 
white ditto ; and if you could manage Schizanthuses just like Mignonette j 
seedlings all the winter, they would please you exceedingly next May, par¬ 
ticularly Schizanthus rctusvs , which is the best of them, and -which is not 
worth sowing at any other time half so much as in September. You will 
find the information you require in “ Greenhouses for the Many,” and 
“ Window Gardening for the Many.” 
Name of Pear [U. P.). —The Pear is most assuredly not th e Jargonelle. 
It is a wilding, and must either have been produced by a shoot from the 
stock, or have been a seedling. 
Names of Ferns (Alethca).— It is a seedling plant of Pteris aquilina, . 
the Common Brake. ( H. B.). — Your beautiful Fern from Sylhet, is 
Cheilanthes dcalbata. (J. F. Armstrong). —1 . Lnstrcca Filix-mas incisa. , 
2. Polystichxim angulare. 3. Lnstrcca montana (Oneopteris). 4. Lastrcca 
j spinulosa. 5. Lastrcca Filix-mas in a multijid state, seldom found constant. 
Names of Plants ( Bude ). — Your two Cornish plants are Cochlearia 
| danica , and Euphorbia Paralia. (R. F. S.). —Your plant is an annual, 
Platystemon califbrnicum. It arrived very fresh. ( V. P. T.). —The 
! annual flower is Enothcra tetraptera. The leaf looks like one from 
| Valeriana ojjicinalis. 
POULTRY and bee-keeper; s chronicle. 
“DOES LIKE PRODUCE LIKE?” 
That there is a growing desire to cultivate the prevailing 
taste for domestic animals is beyond a doubt, and we arc happy ' 
; to see the disposition that is springing up to treat the question J 
scientifically. Some seek for the acclimatisation of foreign races, 
while others investigate the origin of those we possess. Good 
must spring from both ; and much of our most valuable know¬ 
ledge has been gained at the cost of amiable enthusiasts who, hi 
searching for them hobbies and fancies, have discovered impor¬ 
tant truths. 
Dr. Darwin has set a great stone rolling, and we are happy to 
find able men are giving lectures on the subject of “ species ” in 
many of our large towns. Of course different people take 
different views, and we have been asked to give our ideas on the 
subject. We confess to no small diffidence. We are tolerably 
an fait as to points, breeding, &c. ; but when wo have to dip 
into science, and to handle names that tack half the alphabet 
after them, we feel some care is necessary, and resolve to confine 
ourselves strictly to our subject, and to the facts connected with 
it. Anything beyond that must belong to the learned world. 
An applicant for information says, “ Does like produce like P ” 
We answer, “Yes” and “No.” In all admitted breeds, Po¬ 
lands, Cochins, Game, the varieties of Ducks and others that 
have the stamp of originality upon them, like produces like— 
not, however, to a feather. The prevalence of dark ones in 
a Cochin, the brown breast sometimes thrown by the offspring 
of Black Red Game fowls, and the increase of black feathers in the 
white top of the Poland continually occur, but nothing beyond 
tliis. There is no such thing as breeding Malay from Game, or 
Dorking from Cochin, or Muscovy from an Aylesbury Duck. 
Strange tilings are sometimes heard of; but in those instances 
there can be no doubt that the birds whence sprung the ano¬ 
malies were themselves impure and cross-bred, and had thrown 
back to a distant cross. 
If we go beyond our poultry-yard, and look among wild kinds, 
we find this truth borne out. Every species is distinctly 
separate ; and although when domesticated there have been 
instances of different breeds intermixing, yet the result has always 
been a hybrid—an animal incapable of increasing or continuing 
its species. We believe there is no known instance of hybrids 
in a state of nature. Those most common in a domestic state 
are between common fowl and Pheasant, ordinary and Muscovy 
Ducks, Pintail and Wild Ducks, Canada and Barnacle Geese. 
They have been seen between the Golden and common Pheasant, 
but very rarely. The hybrid most sought after and thought of 
is that between the fowl and Pheasant. In these there is a dif¬ 
ference in size between birds of the same nest, which makes people 
call them male and female, hut there is no real distinction; and 
the delight of the so-called male is to watch when hens leave 
their nests, and to take on himself directly the office of a sitter. 
Distinguished from these we have a manufactured fowl in the 
Sebright Bantam. As this is a compound of many varieties of 
the same species, it retains its productive properties. It is true 
some difference in shape was desired and achieved; but the main 
point was feather, or, to speak more correctly, colour. It is 
hardly necessary to state that every feather is or should be 
accurately laced, and it was by most skilful and patient com¬ 
binations accomplished. When, however, these birds are kept 
apart from all others of the same breed, a few years are sufficient 
to destroy all beauty; and as to gain certain points, it was often 
necessary to make use of a bird possessing only one of them, 
joined to positive ugliness in other respects, so, when these 
birds are left alone, and the combination that made them hand¬ 
some is not renewed, they seem to lose everything that is pleasing 
to the eye, and become uglier than any other, showing prin¬ 
cipally the most objectionable parts only of those birds from 
which they were made. 
In this instance, then, like does not produce like ; but the law 
of Natiu’e shows itself in this as in other things, wise and im¬ 
mutable. One chemist, by a skilful combination of various drugs 
or minerals, may succeed in forming that which he requires; but 
if it be left to itself and inspected after a time, it will, probably, 
be seen the component parts have already divided themselves. 
Just so in the Sebright Bantams : the two colours, no longer 
skilfully blended or divided, become patches, the accurate comb 
becomes a deformity, and the once beautiful breed is to all intents 
and purposes a mongrel. In a distinct breed—as for instance. 
Cochin or Dorking, no period of interbreeding will cause it to 
assume the appearance of any other breed. Degeneracy shows itself 
by stunted growth, crooked limbs, and large joints ; its effect on 
colour is to increase white just in proportion to the growing 
weakness of the animal. Like produces like in every pure breed ; 
but it is impossible to get one variety from another, unless at 
some time there liodbeen a mixture of it in the parent.—B. 
