to the usual framework, and
these being silvered on the inside, throw all the light that falls on
them into the room, when placed at the proper angle.

Again, the possibility of locomotion without the aid of steam is
talked about, and the New Yorkers are said to be about to send over a
large ship driven by Ericsson's caloric engine, which is to prove as
powerful as vapour at one-half of the cost--a fact of which we shall
be better able to judge when the vessel really arrives. Then, looking
across the Channel, we find the Abbe Moigno proposing to construct and
establish a relief model of Europe in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris,
of a size to cover several acres, and with the railways of iron, and
the rivers of water, by which means one of the most interesting and
instructive of sights would be produced, and the attractions of the
Trench capital greatly increased. A desirable project--but the cost!
The Montyon prize of 2000 francs has been awarded to M. Mosson, for
his method of drying and preserving vegetables for long sea voyages,
as published a few months ago. M. Naudin states, that a certain kind
of furze or thistle, of which cattle are very fond, may be made to
grow without thorns--an important consideration, seeing that at
present, before it can be used as food, it has to undergo a laborious
beating, to crush and break the prickles with which it is covered. As
the plant thrives best on poor soils, which might otherwise lie
useless, the saving of this labour will be a great benefit to the
French peasantry; and the more so, as it appears the plant will grow
in its new state from seed. M. Naudin believes, that the condition of
other vegetable productions may be varied at pleasure, and promises to
lay his views shortly before the Academie. M. Lecoq, director of the
Botanical Garden at Claremont, informs the same body of something
still more extraordinary, in a communication, entitled 'Two Hundred,
Five Hundred, or even a Thousand new Vegetables, created _ad
libitum_.' Having been struck by the fact, that the ass so often feeds
upon the thistle, he took some specimens of that plant, and, by
careful experiment, has succeeded in producing for the table 'a
savoury vegetable, with thorns of the most inoffensive and flexible
sort.' Whatever be the kind of thistle, however hard and sharp its
thorns, he has tamed and softened them all, his method of
transformation being, as he says, none other than exposing the plants
to differ