4J4 COLOURED STARS. 



There is more variety, he says, in the innumerable star-sys- 

 tems which crowd the fields of space, than in all the changes 

 which the most skilful opticians can project on the screen of 

 a magic lantern. Some of the planetary universes lighted up 

 by two suns display the entire gamut of colours above blue, 

 but are without the sparkling tints of gold and purple which 

 contribute so greatly to the luminosity of our world. 



In this category may be placed certain systems situated in 

 the constellations of Andromedae, the Serpent, Ophiuchus, and 

 Coma Berenices. 



Others are illuminated by red suns, as, for example, a double 

 star in Leo. 



Others, again, are wholly dominated by blue and yellow, or, 

 at least, are kindled by a blue sun and a yellow sun, which 

 afford but a limited series of the tints or shades comprised 

 in the combinations of these primitive colours ; such are the 

 systems of Ceta, Eridanus (where one is straw-coloured, the 

 other blue), Cameleopardalis, Orion, Rhinoceros, Gemini, 

 Bootes (where the greater one is yellow, and the lesser a 

 greenish blue), and Cygnus (where the smaller is " blue as a 

 sapphire "). On the other hand, combinations of red and green 

 may be found in Cassiopeia, Coma Berenices, and Hercules. 



There are other stellar systems which, according to Flam- 

 marion, more nearly approximate to our own, in the sense 

 that one of the suns illuminating them has, like ours, a white 

 light, the source of all colours, while its neighbouring lumi- 

 nary casts a permanent reflection upon everything. Such, for 



