508 [Assembly 



was there, who practised firing at a mark on this rock. This 

 natural solution of the particles of lead left by the bullets has 

 eradicated all the mo?s, cryptogams, lichens and lycopodes (club 

 mosses), and no plant whatever had touched the spots whitened 

 by the lead fur fourteen years past. 



[Annales De La SocietS Imperials D'Horticulture. Paris. Dec, 1854.] 



Report of Dr. De Bonis on the published works of the Smithsonian 

 Institute. 



The generous and enlightened Republic of the United States 

 has done this society the honor of comprising it in the number of 

 those useful institutions to which it sends its volumes of memoirs. 



You have referred to me the examination of the four magnifi- 

 cent volumes folio, published by them, 1851 to 1853, received 

 through the medium of Mons. Vattemare. 



I have examined them at full length, and find their high im- 

 portance. We must return our thanks to the Institute. Here- 

 after we will make a full report. — Extracts translated by H. Meigs, 



PREMIUMS GIVEN FOR INCOMBUSTIBLE BUILDINGS. 



The ordinary cheapness of incombustible materials for building 

 when compared with our wooden structures, the greater ease in 

 building with them, together with the imperial power of habii 

 which has always hitherto rendered the use of combustible ma^ 

 terials more general than the incombustible. The latter have 

 doubtless been properly understood and valued by some men, 

 especially in periods of high progress and knowledge. Of late 

 years many attempts have been made to render wood incombus- 

 tible without destroying its strength. Public buildings, factories, 

 &c., should be incombustible, and private also; insurance is no 

 remedy for such losses; the loss is that of the whole community, 

 and in thousands of cases irreparable, by the burning of things' 

 which cannot be replaced. 



Although incombustible buildings may cost something more, 

 yet considering the tax of insurance being removed, and consider- 

 ing the duration of this new incombustible house, both landlord 



