322 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



of their known Ceylonese species, with some synonyms. The 

 naturalized species are enclosed in brackets ; the endemic species, 

 by a happy thought, are in small capitals, which at once catch 

 the eye. a. g. 



4. Hon. George W. Clinton, probably the oldest native bot- 

 anist of this country, a man of remarkable personality and attract- 

 iveness, died at Albany — the city of his birth and boyhood — 

 September 7, at the age of about 78. Some biographical notice 

 of Judge Clinton, and of the late Charles Wright, may be ex- 

 pected in the January number of this Journal. a. g. 



IV. Astronomy. 



1. Identity of Denning' 's and Bielci's comets. — In the Obser- 

 vatory Mr. Denning and Captain Tupman discuss the question 

 whether these two comets may not be the same body, and are led 

 to believe their identity probable. The two comets have their 

 line of nodes nearly coincident, the ascending node of the one 

 being very nearly the descending node of the other. The earth 

 is supposed to have thrown the comet from one orbit into the 

 other, the radius vectors being made to equal that of the earth by 

 minor disturbances of Jupiter. 



If however the radiants for the two comets be compared they 

 will be found to differ in position by a distance of 125° or 130°, 

 and this distance is a measure of the necessary disturbing power 

 of the earth in order to throw the comet from one orbit into the 

 other. Either comet, it will be found by a simple computation, 

 would have to come much nearer to the earth's center than 4000 

 miles in order to suffer such a perturbation of orbit. 



Y. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science at Ann Arbor, Michigan* — The thirty-fourth meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 convened in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, August 26, and adjourned 

 on Tuesday evening, September 1. The sessions were held in the 

 halls and apartments of the University, which were found unusu- 

 ally commodious, being spacious, accessible and quiet, and the 

 large University hall seating 3,000 persons. The total number of 

 members registered during the meeting was 364, and the total 

 number of new members elected was 153. A very large number 

 of visitors attended the meeting in addition to the above lists. 

 The total number of papers entered for the meeting was 179; and 

 of these 176 were read, including one illustrated evening lecture. 

 Of these papers there were read before the section of Mathematics 

 and Astronomy, 12; before that of Physics, 23; that of Chemis- 

 try, 18; of Mechanical Science, 12; of Geology and Geography, 

 27; of Biology (which was made to include all paleontological 



* The editors are indebted for this sketch to Professor A. Wmchell, of Ann- 

 Arbor. 



