16 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESs, 
commonly known as the Garden Palace, which occurred ‘since our 
last anniversary. The building had been made the depository, 
not only of many valuable records belonging to the Government, 
but of the very valuable collection of geological specimens pur- 
chased by the Country, from the representatives of our former 
friend and distinguished Vice-president, the Rev. W. B. Clarke, 
These, with their accompanying notes, were all consumed in the 
flames, and with them the entire library of the Linnean Society, 
comprising many works of rare excellence, difficult to replace. A 
resolution was passed at our meeting in October last expressing the 
regret and sympathy of the members of the Royal Society, and was 
forwarded by your President to the President of the Linnean — 
Society, with an offer of such assistance as the use of our rooms for 
their meetings might afford. The offer was courteously acknow- 
ledged, with the intimation that the accommodation afforded by the 
Free Public Library was sufficient to satisfy their present wants. 
It is fitting, moreover, that I should notice the disappointment 
which attended the efforts of our able and popular Astronomer 
for the observation of the transit of Venus. Unfavourable 
weather over the whole of the Colony frustrated his well-laid plans 
for the observations at each of the stations selected for the pur- 
pose; and I believe that the Queensland observers specially 
appointed from home were equally unfortunate. I am certain that 
I express the sentiments of every member of the Society when I 
say that Mr. Russell had the sympathy of every one of them in 
his disappointment, not only on public but on private grounds; for 
we know how much time and thought, trouble and anxiety, the 
preparations cost him, and how keenly he felt the failure of them. 
Special expeditions for the observation were organized in England 
for the following places, viz. :—Madagascar, the Cape of Good 
Hope, Bermuda, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Queensland, and New 
Zealand. The promise of hearty co-operation by Mr. Russell in 
New South Wales, and by Mr. Ellery in Victoria, rendered any 
special assistance from home quite unnecessary in the case of these 
Colonies. The results of the observations that have proved success 
ful have yet (I believe) to be made public. 
