highly eccentric orbit, in a period of about one hundred days.
Gamma Andromedæ was known to the Arabs as "Almach." Allen tells us this name was derived from a phrase meaning a small predatory animal similar to a badger. The propriety of such a designation here is not obvious in connection with Andromeda, and the name would indicate that it belonged to a very early Arab astronomy. In the astronomy of China, Gamma, with other stars in Andromeda and Triangulum, was "Tien Ta Tseang," "Heaven's Great General." Astrologically this star was "honourable and eminent." The duplicity of Almach according to Allen was discovered by Johann Tobias Mayer of Gottingen in 1778, and Wilhelm Struve in 1842 found that its companion was a close double. Herschel regarded Almach as one of the most beautiful objects in the heavens, and Webb, Proctor, and Serviss all speak in glowing terms of the beautiful contrast in colour between the gold and blue of the primary and its companion. Almach certainly vies in beauty with the famous double Beta Cygni, and is perhaps with this exception the most charming of all double stars. It is an easy double for small telescopes and is consequently a great favourite with amateur astronomers. It requires a 5″ glass at least to split the blue companion star. The celebrated meteor shower known as "the Andromedes II.," the so-called Bielid meteors of November, radiate from the vicinity of this star. There was a wonderful display of these meteors in 1872 and 1885. Delta Andromedæ marks the radiant point of the Andromedes I., a meteor shower due the 21st of July.
The fourth magnitude stars λ, κ, ι Andromedæ and the fifth magnitude star ψ Andromedæ form a "Y "-shaped figure which bears the name of "Gloria Frederica" or Frederick's Glory, an asterism formed by Bode in 1787 in honour of the great Frederick II., of Prussia, who died in 1786. The figure is thus described: "Below a nimbus the sign of royal dignity hangs, wreathed with the imperishable
