Ixxxii. president's address. 



there seems a likelihood of renewed activity. B}^ means of 

 photography 43 small planets have been added in 1902 to the 

 499 already known to exist. The diameters of these planets are 

 in general only a few miles, but that of " Eros," in which much 

 interest is taken, is about 1 5 miles. Great interest, too, is still 

 excited by that wonderful star Nova Persei, the colour of which 

 during the last two years, when observed by the spectroscope, 

 has varied in shades of white, yellow, orange, and red, with the 

 fluctuations in magnitude. Three comets were discovered during 

 the year. The first on April 12th by Mr. Brooks ; the second by 

 Mr. Peniac on August 31st, which, from its brightness, excited 

 much interest, especially as it became visible to the naked eye ; 

 and the third was discovered by Mr. Grigg in July. 



Botany. 



Though no great discovery in the cereal, culinary, or horticul- 

 tural plants known to us have been reported in 1902, very great 

 progress indeed has been made in the botanical development of 

 our African empire — surely, but silently, by a body of men well 

 known to Londoners, but not as well known and appreciated 

 throughout the provinces and the empire — I allude to the director 

 and staff of the Government gardens at Kew. For many years 

 past, under the able superintendence of the directors of that 

 establishment, a small body of skilled and trained gardeners 

 have from time to time been despatched to no less than 

 20 different points in the vast continent of Africa, north, south, 

 east, and west, from Cairo to Capetown, and from Mombasa to 

 Sierra Leone, to say nothing of Ceylon, the West Indies, and 

 other colonies. The result is that they have proved that millions 

 of acres of land in our new African empire are capable of pro- 

 ducing the very best rubber, cotton, cocoa, sugar, and other 

 marketable products for the use of man, Nigritia alone, the last 

 " black diamond " just presented by Sir F. Lugard to the 

 Imperial Crown, being alone sufficient to supply all the cotton we 



