,10 TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



Royal Society of South Africa.- Wednesday, April 16th: L. Perin- 

 guey, D.Sc. F.E.S.. F.Z.S.. President, in the chair. — " A new species of 

 Hamatoxylon " ; Miss E. L. Stephens. The genus Haematoxylon has 



hitherto heen represented in South Africa by only one species — H. campe- 

 cheanum L. (the logwood tree). The species now described was found 

 by Prof. Pearson in Great Namaqualand in 1909. It differs from H. 

 campecheanum in its shrubby habit, its pilose and glandular young parts 

 and inflorescence, its bilabiate calyx, and its longer petals and stamens. 

 It yields the characteristic logwood dye. — " Notes on the pollination of 

 some South African cycads " : Dr. G. Rattray. Encephalartos Alten- 

 steinii Lehm. is pollinated by inscet agency, the pollen bearer being a 

 weevil belonging to the genus Phlceophagus. Anemophily may still occa- 

 sionally occur in this species. E. villosus Lehm., from its habitat and cone 

 structure appears to he exclusively entomophilous In Stangeria Katseri 

 Rgl., no evidence of entomophily has been found. — " A synopsis of the 

 species of Lotononis and Plciospora " : R. A. Dummer. — "Note on an 

 overlooked theorem regarding the product of two determinants of different 

 orders'': Dr. T. Muir. — "Note on the Newcomh operators used in the 

 development of the perturbative function": R. T. A. Innes. 



Geological Society of South Africa.— Monday. March 17th: A. L. 

 Hall, B.A., F.G.S.. President, in the chair. — " Notes on the Sea Point 

 granite-slate quartzite " : Prof E H. L. Schwarz. From the point of 

 view of historical geology, the granite-slate contact at Sea Point, first 

 described by Clark Abel in 1818. is one of the most famous exposures in 

 the world. There may he said to be five zones of injection intrusion and 

 contact phenomena, with intervals of apparently unaltered rock, the fifth, 

 or outermost zone being about three-quarters of a mile north-east of the 

 main contact. Felspar crystals impregnate the rock for the first time 

 a: the third zone, about 500 yards from the outermost contact. The main 

 zone exhibits a gradation of slate into granite. The substance of the 

 granite has in some instances advanced by the process of solution and 

 deposition through the agency of water: in others large masses have been 

 injected under pressure, in proof whereof an extraordinary case of con- 

 certina folding in a quartz vein pre-existent in a slate block included in 

 the granite was cited. — "Notes on diamonds in the Banket - ': Dr. R. B. 

 Young. Diamonds have at various times been found in the mortar 



boxes of certain of the Rand Mines. The colour of these stones, when 

 recorded, has invariably been green. It is considered that the diamonds 

 were deposited with the pebbles during sedimentation, and their occur- 

 rence shows that a source of diamonds exists in the pre-Witwatersrand 

 rocks from which the banket was derived. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Crawford, D. — Thinking black: twenty-two years without a break in 

 the long grass of Central Africa. 8vo., pp. xvi, 504. Maps and 

 illus. London: Morgan and Scott. 1912. 40 oz., 7s. 6d. 



Powell, E. A. — The last frontier: The white man's war for civilisation 

 in Africa. 8vp., pp, xv, 291. Maps and illus. London : Long- 

 mans, Green & Co., 1913. 32 oz.. 10s. 6d. 



Thompson, W. W. — Sea fisheries of the Cape Colony, pp. viii, 163. 

 Cape Town and Pretoria: T. Maskew Miller, 1913. T2 oz. 



Engler, A.— Die PAansenwelt Afrikas insbesondere seiner tropische 

 Gebiete. Band 1. Halfte 1, Toiin. x 7-lin.. pp, xxviii, 478. TTalfte 

 2, pp. xii, 479 — 1029. Maps, illus. Leipzig: W. Engelmann. 1.9 10. 



Leclercq, Jules. — Aux sources du Xil par le Chemin dc Per de 

 I'Ouganda, 7£ih. x 5in., pp. v, 295. Maps, illus. Paris: Plon- 

 Nouritt et Cie, 1913. 



Cranworth, Lord. — . / colony in the making; or. sport and profit in 

 British East Africa. 9m. x 6in., pp. xiv, 350. Map 1 -, illus. London: 

 Macmillan and Co., 1912. 



Darnastaedter, P. — Geschichte der Aufteilung nnd Kolonisation Afrikas 

 seit dan Zeitalter des Entdeckungen. Band 1, 1415-1870. Ojin. 

 x 6in., pp. viii, 320. Maps. Berlin: G. J. Goschen., 1913. 7 M. 

 50 pf. 



