XU PROCEEDINGS, MAY. 



Monthlj'- Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Annual Report 

 of the Council, No. XLVII., No, 4, February, 1887.— From the Soei&t?. 



Nature. Current Ncs. 



Plants Poisonous and Injurious to Stock. By F. M. Bailey and P. R. 

 Gordon (bound). Brisbane, 1867- — From the Authors. 



Report of the Surveyor-General of the Army to the Secretary of 

 War for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886 —From the Department. 



ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN. 



His Excellency sa'd that, before proceeding with the business of 

 the evening, he would read to them an address which had been 

 prepared for presentation to Her Majesty the Queen, He then read 

 the following address : — 



To Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen- 



May it please Your Majesty— We, the President and Fellows of the 

 Royal Society of Tasmania, desire to offer our warmest and most 

 respectful congratulations on the auspicious completion of the 50th 

 year of Your Majesty's illustrious and beneficent reign. 



Hitherto Your Majesty's reign has been unparalleled in English annals 

 for discoveries in arts and sciences of priceless importance to the State, 

 for enlightened legislation on matters more intimately connected with 

 the social intei'ests and well-being of the community, but still more, 

 perhaps, for the marvellous expansion of the colonies of the Empire 

 in everything which can foreshadow for them a great and glorious 

 future. 



That a reign so pure, so prosperous, so fraught with everything 

 which can contribute to the power, progress, and prosperity of the nation 

 should have been so prolonged is a matter for the deepest thankfulness; 

 and with earnest prayers that the succeeding years of Your Majesty's 

 reign may bear even a favourable comparison with those that are past, 

 we humbly subscribe oui'selves. Your Majesty's most faithful and most 

 loyal subjects. 



On behalf of the Fellows, 



R. G. 0. Hamilton, President. 

 J. W. Agnew, Hon. Sec. 



The text of the address, which was engrossed oa parchment, had 

 been executed by Mr. Albert Reid, and a very handsome border of 

 flowers, consisting of native fuschias, clematis, and maiden-hair fern, 

 was painted on it by Miss V. Hall. 



A paper, entitled " The Comets of February, 1880, and January, 

 1887," by Mr. A. Biggs, was, in the absence of the author, read by 

 the secretary, Mr. A. Morton. The paper was accompanied by a star- 

 chart of the comets of February, 1886, and January, 1887. The writer 

 drew attention to the strong resemblance between the two comets in 

 general appearance, length of tail, absence of any visible nucleus, and, 

 as exhibited by the chart, the close similarity of their a])parent paths 

 in the sky. The author expressed an opinion, founded upon a rough 

 heliocentric projection of their orbits from the uncertain data available, 

 that thpse orbits were nearly, if not quite, identical, but differing from 

 that of the great comet of 1882-3 with which the orbit of 1880 had 

 been supposed to coincide. 



Commenting upon the apparent absence of head in the case of the 

 two later comets, the author suggested from the fact that the tail of 

 a comet is not amenable to the laws of gravitation that the bodies in 

 question were possibly not comets at all, but the main body of a 

 meteoric stream, not far from the position the earth occupies at the 

 end of January. 



