May 28, 1914] 
clays of Flamborough and Holderness. All the stones 
{between 300 and 4oo) found in this clay were collected 
and examined. ‘The greater part are well-glaciated 
crystalline rocks, many of which (the typical Chris- 
tiania eruptives) certainly are of South Norwegian 
origin. ‘The apparent absence of any East Scan- 
dinavian rocks in Durham is noticed, and an explana- 
tion offered. Later than the fissure-filling material 
are certain water-deposited gravels and sands, which 
occupy shallow depressions underlying the main drift 
seen on the coast. The main drifts of S.E. Durham 
are described, and also the conspicuous kaimes de- 
veloped about the village of Sheraton and others, 
associated with the Cheviot drift—F. W. Penny: 
the Relationship of the Vredefort Granite to the Wit- 
watersrand System. The Vredefort Granite has always 
been considered as a member of that ‘‘old granite”’ 
group, which everywhere in the Transvaal and in the 
Orange Free State is found emerging from beneath the 
Witwatersrand Series. Evidence is bought forward to 
prove the intrusive character of the Vredefort Granite, 
both into the Witwatersrand Beds and into the basic 
intrusion associated with them. Along its margin the 
granite has removed varying amounts of the sediments 
from point to point; it reacted with the basic intru- 
sions in the sedimentary beds, with the consequent 
production of hybrid rocks. In one place, a subsidiary 
intrusion of granite occurs in the middle of the diabase. 
The granite, where it comes into contact with the slate 
members of the Witwatersrand Series, has induced 
definite metamorphism in them, producing a mag- 
netite-actinolite-staurolite rock, which is of an entirely 
distinct type from that induced by the basic intrusion 
associated with the Witwatersrand Beds, a micaceous 
phyllitic rock. It is suggested that the Vredefort 
Granite, instead of being ‘‘Archzan,” is of a post- 
Pretoria-pre-Karoo age, if not contemporaneous with, 
at least connected with, the same epoch of igneous 
activity as the ‘‘Red Granite” of the Northern 
Transvaal. 
Royal Meteorological Society, May 20.—Mr. C. J. P. 
Cave, president, in the chair.—E. Gold: The reduction 
of barometer readings in absolute units, and a new 
form of barometer card. The Meteorological Office 
having now employed the c.g.s. units in its publica- 
tions, this has necessitated the preparation of new 
tables for the reduction of the barometer readings and 
for the adjustment of the effect of difference between 
the standards of temperature 62° F. and 273° A.— 
A. Hampton Brown; A Cuban rain record and its 
application. The author dealt with the rainfall re- 
cords of the Belen College Observatory, Havana, for 
the period 1859 to 1912, and gave particulars of the 
monthly, yearly, and seasonal rainfall. The average 
yearly rainfall for the fifty years 1861-1910 .is just 
under 50 in., but during the past fifteen years there 
has been a marked tendency to diminished amounts. 
The rainfall year can be divided into two seasons: a 
wet from May to October, and a dry from November 
to April. During the former, 35-36 in., or 71 per cent. 
of the rain falls, the remaining 14-60 in., or 29 per 
cent., being recorded in the dry months. The author 
has endeavoured to trace the connection between the 
wet season at Havana during May to October, and 
the precipitation in England, south-west, and South 
Wales, during the three months, January to March 
following, and he has found that from 1878 onwards, 
when the first reports for this country are available, 
that an excess rainfall in Havana during May to 
‘October was generally followed by a deficient rainfall 
in England, south-west, at the beginning of the next 
year, and vice versd. For the eight years 1888-95, 
when the rainfall at Havana was continuously in 
excess, in England, south-west, the figures with one 
NG 2326, VOL: 92] 
| as a factor in soil-deterioration. 
NATURE 341 
exception were the reverse. During the next five 
years, 1896-1900, there was a deficiency at the Cuban 
station, and, excepting 1897, an excess in this country. 
There were many years where the application failed, 
but the general continuance of the see-saw movement 
was so persistent that it could scarcely be regarded 
as merely coincidental. 
CAMBRIDGE. 
Philosophical Society, May 4.—Dr. Shipley, president, 
in the chair.—W. L. Balls: (1) (a) A note on leaf-fall 
Described two cases 
where soil was rendered infertile through the shedding 
of leaves from tree-cottons over several years, and by 
.very heavy shedding from rank growth of ordinary 
(b) Specific salinity in the. cell-sap of pure 
strains. Followed from investigating the salt rela- 
tions of the previous note. Egyptian cotton was 
shown to be a. facultative halophyte, and different 
pure strains of the same were found to differ in salt 
content when growing with interlacing root. (2) 
Predetermination of fluctuation. kknvironmental 
factors which act at, or near, the time when a char- 
acter is manifest in an organism, are rarely of much 
importance in determining the development of thai 
character. Such factors merely exercise a subsidiary 
deforming influence upon a predetermined scaffolding, 
which was constructed at a much earlier stage in the 
life of the organism. A conception of discontinuity 
is thus introduced into the study of fluctuation. 
Simple illustration is provided by the development of 
the cotton fibre. A most complex example is the 
flowering of the cotton plant.—J. T. Saunders: The 
ammonia content of the waters of small ponds. ‘The 
free ammonia that exists in small ponds is very con- 
siderably reduced in amount after heavy rains, a reduc. 
tion that is out of all proportion to the amount of rain 
that has entered the pond. This reduction in the 
ammonia content adversely affects the nannoplankton, 
which decreases after heavy rains.—F, A. Potts: 
(1) Thompsonia, a little-known Crustacean parasite. 
Thompsonia is a Rhizocephalan cirripede, character- 
istic of the Indo-Pacific area, parasitic on various 
Decapods. (2) The gall-forming crab, Hapalocarcinus. 
Hapalocarcinus causes the curious bodies known as 
‘“oalls’? on branching corals like Pocillopora and 
Seriatopora. The female alone is responsible for the 
gall building; growth of a coral branch is modified by 
her respiratory current. The male is less than one- 
sixth the size of the adult female, and apparently 
wanders from gall to gall. 
BOOKS: RECEIVED: 
Zur Lehre von den Zustanden der Materie. By 
Prof. P. P. von Weimarn. Band i. Text. Pp. x+ 
190. Band ii. Atlas. Tafel lii, (Dresden and Leip- 
zig : T. Steinkopff.) 7 marks. 
Annual Report of the Zoological Society of Scotland 
cotton. 
for the Year Ending March 31, 1914. peo: 
(Murrayfield, Midlothian.) 
Department of the Interior. Weather Bureau. 
Annual Report of the Weather Bureau for the Year 
1g1t. Pp. 166. (Manila.) 
A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus. 
By J. H. Maiden. Vol. ii., part 10. Pp. ii+291-312 
+ plates 85-88. Vol. iii, parti. Pp. 11+1-22+plates 
89-92. (Sydney: W. P. Gullick.) 2s. 6d. each. 
Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire 
Naturelle de Genéve. Vol. xxxviii. Fasc. 1. Rap- 
port du Président de la Société pour 1914. Les 
Cothurnidés Muscicoles. By E. Penard. Pp. 66+5 
plates. (Genéve: Georg et Cie.) 7 francs. 
My Garden in Summer. By E. A. Bowles. Pp. 
viii+316+plates. (London and Edinburgh: T,. C. 
and sb Gack.) sss net. 
