45 
Ordinary Meeting, November 14th, 1876, 
E. W. Binney, F.E.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair, 
The Peesident said that with respect to the meteor de- 
scribed by him at the meeting of the Society on the 17th 
ulto. he had received a letter from Mr. John Petrie, dated 
Broomfield, Bochdale, 4th November, as follows Seeing 
an account of the meteor observed by you in Douglas Bay 
on the 15th of August, I take the liberty of saying that I 
saw the same meteor while crossing a field here. I at first 
thought that it was a rocket, but the slow, steady, and 
almmst horizontal course it took convinced me it was a 
meteor. I described it to my family on entering the house, 
and your description tallies with what I saw and described,” 
The Peesident also said that during the last Session one 
of the Vice-Presidents, Dr. R Angus Smith, F.K.S., brought 
before the Society an interesting paper on the Eucalyptus 
near Rome. About a year and a half since he (the Presi- 
dent) planted in his garden at Douglas in the Isle of Man, 
within fifty feet of the sea and six feet above high water 
mark, a small plant of the Blue Gum tree (Eucalyptus 
globulus). During the last winter the stem died down to 
within a foot of the ground. In the month of April it 
began to grow vigorously, and by the 5th of October it 
had reached the height of 8ft. 8in., and between the last 
named date and the 8 th of November it had attained to 
8ft. 8in., or a total length of 7ft. Sin. The situation where 
the tree grew was sheltered from the winds by high walls, 
and the soil was formed of the debris of Manx schist, which 
he believed contained a considerable amount of potash, but 
it had received no manure. 
Peoceedings—Lit. & Phil. Soc.— Vol, XVI.— No, 4,— Session 1876-7. 
