1828.] [ 427 ] 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



January 11. A paper, entitled third 

 series of observations, with a twenty-feet 

 reflecting telescope, containing a catalogue 

 of 384 new double and multiple stars, com- 

 pleting a first thousand of those objects 

 detected in sweeps with that instrument, 

 together with observations of some pre- 

 viously known, by I. F. W. Herschel, Esq., 

 president, was read. The learned author 

 observes, that on an average of the part of 

 the heavens swept by him, not above one 

 in four of double stars, sufficiently remark- 

 able to attract attention in sweeping, have 

 been catalogued by M. Struve. The limit 

 of vision in the Dorpat telescope he pre- 

 sumes to be about his average, 14th mag- 

 nitude, though such a determination must 

 necessarily be liable to some latitude. This 

 conclusion he deduces from a series of in- 

 stances, in which small companions have 

 been seen by him attached to large stars 

 within the limits of Professor Stmve's 4th 

 class, which have escaped the nottee of the 

 latter. He proposes the following classi- 

 fication of double stars nearly resembling 

 that proposed by his distinguished fath. 



f ! | Close-... 0"& below 1" 

 Class l| Notdose 1/7 _ 2// 



Class 2 2" ' .. 4" 



Class 3 4"& below 8" 



Class 4.. 8" .. 16" 



Class 5 16" .. 32" 



Class 6 32" .. 64" 



so that the limit of distance of stars of the 

 1 1th class shall be 2"X 1// - The contrasted 

 colours so frequently observed in double 

 stars, he regards as in many cases refer- 

 able to the laws of vision. He then ad- 

 duces evidence, which he considers satis- 

 factory, that the fifth star in the trapezium, 

 in the nebula of Orion, existed not on the 

 13th of March 1826, though observed by M. 

 Struve on November 1 1 of that year. He 

 considers it, therefore, if not as a new star, 

 at least as a variable one of very singular 

 character. 



LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



Feb. 5. Some account of the botany of 

 the provinces lately ceded by the Burmese 

 to the East India Company, with a descrip- 

 tion of two new genera of plants, in a let- 

 ter to H. T. Colebrooke, Esq., by N. Wai- 

 lick, M.D., superintendent of the Botanic 

 Garden at Calcutta, was read. The author 

 states that his botanical treasures are most 

 extensive ; the number of species having 

 long ago surpassed 2,000 ; that he has never 

 seen any vegetable production equal to his 

 Arnherstia nobilis when in full bloom the 

 genus of this plant is evidently allied to 

 Heterostemon and Desfoutaines. Dr. Wal- 



lich has at length found the varnish tree of 

 the Burmese, which he constitutes a new 

 genus, and calls it melanorrhoea. Also 

 another singular plant, which he calls phy- 

 tocrene gigantea, allied to Araliaceae. The 

 trunk is as thick as a man's thigh, and 

 when divided, affords a large quantity of a 

 limpid, tasteless, and very wholesome wa- 

 ter. 19. A description was read of a cu- 

 rious fungus, belonging to the gastromycous 

 order, found near Wrexham, by I. T. Bow- 

 man, Esq., on decaying oak branches strip- 

 ped of bark. In its earliest stages it is glo- 

 bular : afterwards, from the expansion of 

 the filaments, the sporules are exposed, and 

 the sporangium becomes rugged and broken 

 from the ripening of the seeds, the peri- 

 dium bursts, and the filaments set at li- 

 berty, acquire first a horizontal and then 

 a more erect position, resembling the 

 branches of a palm tree. There was also 

 read at the above meeting some portions 

 of a paper by I. E. Bicheno, Esq., entitled 

 remarks on the flora of Great Britain, as 

 connected with geography and geology. 

 The author in this paper, instead of at- 

 tempting to connect plants with particular 

 temperatures, as most authors who have 

 treated the subject have done before, en- 

 deavours to shew the relation which vege- 

 tables have to geographical and geological 

 structure. He regards England as the 

 most favourable place to commence such 

 remarks, because of the intimate know- 

 ledge we have of its stratification, and 

 also of the stations of all our plants. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Feb. 1. The reading of Professor Sedg-- 

 wick and Mr. Murkison's paper, on the 

 geological structure of the Island of Arran, 

 begun at the last meeting, was concluded ; 

 the details, presenting no interest to the 

 general reader, we think it needless to insert. 

 On the fifteenth of the same month the 

 anniversary meeting of the society was 

 held, and the officers and council for the 

 current year were elected. 



FOREIGN. 

 INSTITUTE ACABEMY OF SCIENCES. 



December 17, 1827. M.M. Gay-Lus- 

 sac, Thenard and Chevreul, presented a 

 iavourable report on two notes of M. Se- 

 rullas, one on the bromures of arsenic, 

 antimony, and bismuth ; the other on the 

 oxibromure of arsenic. Mr. Girard made a 

 verbal report on the works relative to the 

 opening of the canal of the Hudson, which 

 had been forwarded by M. Genert. M. 

 Cauchy read a memoir, entitled " Employ- 

 ment of the calculus of remainders for 

 the summation or the transformation of 

 series, of which the general term is an 



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