564 Transactions of the American Institute. 



caused by this hitherto imsuvspected plant, which animals are said 

 to like when it is in bloom. 



A NEW HORTICULTURAL PROCESS. 



At the last meetins' of the As-ricultural Society in India, the Eev. 

 Mr. Ferminger communicated a plan by which the stones of fruit 

 may be reduced or made to disappear, and the pulp increased in 

 size and flavor. At any time during the cold season, select a 

 branch that is to be used afterward for inarching. Split it up 

 carefully somewhat less than a span long. From both halves of 

 the branch thus split, scoop out clearly all the pith; then bring 

 the split halves together again, and keep them bandaged till they 

 have become thoroughly united. At the usual time, the beginning 

 of the rains, inarch the branch thus treated upon suitable stock, 

 taking for the place of union the portion of the branch just below 

 where the split was made. Upon a branch of the tree thus pro- 

 duced a similar operation is performed, and so on for successive 

 seasons; the result being that the stone of the fruit becomes less 

 and less, after each successive operation. This process has been 

 applied, likewise, to the grape vine at Malaga; and plants thereby 

 have been produced which bear the finest fruit, without the slight- 

 est vestige of a stone within them. 



NEW BRIDGE OVER THE PO. 



A railway and road-bridge crossing the river Po, at Mezzaua 

 Corti, has just been completed. It consists of ten spans of one 

 hundred and ninety-six feet each, with piers and abutments; its 

 total length is three thousand, three hundred and ten feet. The 

 superstructure is of two lattice girders, twenty-four feet, six inches 

 deep, placed twenty seven feet, three inches apart, connected above 

 and below with cross girders of plate iron. The lower system of 

 cross girders carries a double line of railway, and the upper a road- 

 way. The novelty of this bridge is in its substructure, and the 

 plan for completing it. Iron caissons, forty-nine feet long, nine- 

 teen feet wide, and eight feet and eight inches deep, open only on 

 the bottom, but entered on the top by means of four tubes pro- 

 vided with skips and equilibrium chambers, were sunk at right 

 angles to the line of the l^ridge on the site of the piers. After the 

 water has been removed from within the caissons, by means of com- 

 pressed air, which was also used to exclude the water, the whole 

 interior was filled in with concrete introduced by means of the 



