be noticed three small stars. These are [theta], [iota], and [kappa]
Bootis, and are usually placed in star-maps near the upraised hand of
the Herdsman. The two which lie next to Alkaid, [iota] and [kappa], are
interesting doubles. The former is a wide double (see Plate 5), the
magnitudes of components 4 and 8, their colours yellow and white. The
larger star of this pair is itself double. The star [kappa] Bootis is
not so wide a double (see Plate 5), the magnitudes of the components 5
and 8, their colours white and faint blue--a beautiful object.

The star [xi] Bootis is an exceedingly interesting object. It is
double, the colours of the components being orange-yellow and ruddy
purple, their magnitudes 3-1/2 and 6-1/2. When this star was first
observed by Herschel in 1780 the position of the components was quite
different from that presented in Plate 5. They were also much closer,
being separated by a distance of less than 3-1/2 seconds. Since that
time the smaller component has traversed nearly a full quadrant, its
distance from its primary first increasing, till in 1831 the stars were
nearly 7-1/2 seconds apart, and thence slowly diminishing, so that at
present the stars are less than 5 seconds apart. The period usually
assigned to the revolution of this binary system is 117 years, and the
period of peri-astral passage is said to be 1779. It appears to me,
however, that the period should be about 108 years, the epoch of last
peri-astral passage 1777 and of next peri-astral passage, therefore,
1885. The angular motion of the secondary round the primary is now
rapidly increasing, and the distance between the components is rapidly
diminishing, so that in a few years a powerful telescope will be
required to separate the pair.

Not far from [xi] is [pi] Bootis, represented in Plate 5 as a somewhat
closer double, but in reality--now at any rate--a slightly wider pair,