November 25, 1909] 



NA TURE 



117 



are available. Eventually these establishments may be 

 expected to provide a regular supply of trained artisans 

 and mechanics able to adapt themselves readily to western 

 processes. The proposals of the conference referred also 

 to the creation of a technological institute. This institute 

 was to have two branches — at Roorkee and Cawnpore re- 

 spectively ; it was intended that Roorkee should deal only 

 with industries mainly dependent on engineering, while 

 Cawnpore provided for those dependent on chemistry. 

 The proposals allotted 2 lakhs capital expenditure with 

 Rs. 88, 000 annually to Roorkee, and 8 lakhs capital with 

 2i lakhs annually to Cawnpore. Sir John Hewett said in 

 his speech that the Cawnpore part of the scheme has been 

 deferred, but tluit a commencement will be made at once 

 with the development of a technological institute at 

 Roorkee. Thomason College is to have the difficult task 

 of working out the liiles on which the functions of a 

 technological institute can be carried out in India. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Lo.NDO.N. 

 Geological Society, November 3. — Prof. W. J. Sollas, 

 l-'.R.b., president, in the chair. — S. S. Buckman : Certain 

 Jurassic (Lias-Oolite) strata of south Dorset, and their 

 correlation. Descriptions of certain strata (Lower 

 Bathonian to Pliensbachian) on the Dorset coast. Com- 

 parison is made with similar strata inland. The strata 

 described are classified according to the scheme introduced 

 for these strata in 1893. The strata are arranged among 

 thirty-six zonal (hemeral) divisions. The Upper Lias part 

 of the junction-bed of Down Cliffs, Chideock, is a very 

 condensed, imperfect epitome in 20 inches of about 80 feet 

 of strata on the Yorkshire coast. Between the bifrons- 

 layer and the s(ria(ii/us-layer of the junction-bed there is 

 occasionally a 2-inch layer, which is all that represents 

 some 250 feet of deposit in the Cotteswolds. The Upper 

 Tcarcian makes a great showing at Burton Bradstock and 

 Down Cliffs as the Down Cliffs Clay and Bridport Sands. 

 The sequence of aalensis-stvatSL above mooi'ci-heds is 

 demonstrated at Chideock Quarry Hill, in the upper part 

 of the Bridport Sands. The Inferior Oolite strata of 

 Burton and Chideock are not counterparts of one another ; 

 they supplement each other to a certain extent. Mr. 

 Thompson's zonal scheme for the Upper Lias is considered. 

 — S. S. Buckman : Certain Jurassic (" Inferior Oolite ") 

 Ammonites and Brachiopoda. The paper describes certain 

 species of Arnmonites and Brachiopoda which are important 

 for the identification, the correlation, or the dating of 

 Inferior Oolite deposits, and certain other notable species 

 which, having frequently attracted attention in the field, 

 require naming in the interest of future workers. — Dr. 

 \V. F. Hume : The granite-ridges of Kharga Oasis : in- 

 trusive or tectonic? The author quotes the records given 

 by Mr. Beadnell in his paper published in February, 1909, 

 and although in agreement with the facts there stated, 

 differs with regard to the interpretation of those facts. 

 Whereas Mr. Beadnell regards the granite as intrusive, on 

 account of the high dip of the sedimentaries, and the 

 changes which they e.xhibit as regards colour and hard- 

 ness, near the granite, the author considers that the dips 

 are due to fold-movements almost at right angles to one 

 another, since they lie on the same line as the crater-like 

 basins, the rims of which are formed of the compact and 

 steeply dipping limestones of the Lower Eocene, and he 

 adduces as further evidence the fact that dykes and quartz- 

 veins penetrating the crystalline rocks cease abruptly at 

 the edge of the sandstone.— Dr. W. F. Hume : The 

 Cretaceous and Eocene strata of Egypt. The fossiliferous 

 Cretaceous strata are divided into three series : — (i) A 

 northern Antonian type, marked by Cenomanian species, 

 including typical Turonian strata. (2) A central Egyptian 

 or Hammama type, Cenomanian strata being absent, 

 Campanian marked by abundance of Ostrea villei and 

 Trigotiarca mtillidciitata, and phosphatic beds ; the Danian 

 portion having an eastern facies, in which Pecten marls 

 are a characteristic feature, and a western chalky lime- 

 stone indicating a close affinity with the white chalk of 

 northern Europe. (3) A southern or Dungul type, having 

 close affinities with (2), buf in the Campanian the phos- 

 phatic beds are inconspicuous, and the fauna consists of 

 XO. 20gi, VOL. 82] 



a group of specialised sea-urchins and of gastropods, among 

 which Turritellas are very prominent. The uniformity of 

 the Lower Eocene throughout Egypt is emphasised, its 

 triple subdivision being recognisable over vast areas. In 

 the -Middle Eocene this uniformity is replaced by differentia- 

 tion. Five zones have been recognised in the lower 

 division, while in the Upper Moqattant the Turritella-beds 

 and the strata rich in Carolia placunoides and Plicatula 

 polymorpha are of zonal importance. The Lower 

 Moqattam is considered as beginning with the Nummulites 

 gizeliensis zone and closing with the Gistortia-bed. The 

 relation between the Cretaceous and Eocene beds is dis- 

 cussed. Palxontologically, great groups such as the 

 Ammonites, still abundant in the Upper Cretaceous, dis- 

 appear in the Eocene, and are replaced by the characteristic 

 nummulinid Foraminifera. Both periods bear a re- 

 semblance to each other in the dominance of oysters and 

 sea-urchins. A notable feature is the rarity of Brachio- 

 poda in Egypt throughout both periods, nor have belemnites 

 been recorded from the Egyptian Cretaceous. Among post- 

 Eocene formations the calcareous grits are shown to have 

 a wide extension, but in the desert they differ in character 

 from the mammal-yielding beds of the FayOm. The 

 Cretaceous period in Egypt was one, in the main, marked 

 by the gain of sea over land, the Eocene was one of rest, 

 while at the close of the Eocene and during the Oligocene 

 the approach of a continental phase is clearly indicated. 



Linnean Society, November 4. — Dr. D. II. Scott, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Cecil Carus-Wilson : Natural 

 inclusion of stones in woody tissue. About twenty-three 

 years ago a gravel-pit was started in the valley-gravels 

 occurring some three miles from Faversham, in Kent. 

 Part of a wood covered the deposit ; as the work pro- 

 gressed oak trees were felled, and the stumps and roots 

 dislodged. The gravel consists of subangular, water-worn 

 flints and occasional blocks of Sarsen-stone, the whole 

 being mixed with flint grit and quartzose sand. The roots 

 and stumps were distributed as the gravel in which they 

 were embedded was removed. The work of excavating 

 ceased about ten years ago, so the roots still remaining 

 have been exposed for that length of time, the others 

 having been cut up for fuel. Most of those now found 

 were left intact because of the stones enclosed in the 

 wood. Not only did these resist the work of saw and 

 axe, but when burnt they burst asunder with force, be- 

 coming a source of danger. The stones are actually 

 embedded in the solid oak. The tissue of the wood appears 

 to have grown around the stones and enveloped them, 

 indicating that the process was carried on under condi- 

 tions of pressure. There are dozens of stones embedded 

 in some of these roots, so that the substance may be 

 described as "a conglomerate formed of flints enclosed 

 in a woody matrix." In one specimen no fewer than 

 sixty-seven flints were counted, the largest being several 

 pounds in weight, and there are innumerable empty cavities 

 showing where others existed before the shrinkage of the 

 wood after exposure. Odd stones have been occasionally 

 seen thus embedded in the trunks of trees. In Norton 

 Churchyard, a few miles from Faversham, are three old 

 yew trees, and in two of them flints and fragments of 

 tiles have been seen embedded in the wood of the trunk 

 7 feet above the ground. In Molash Churchyard, six or 

 seven miles south of Faversham, there are six very old and 

 large yews. Some of these have flints embedded in their 

 trunks 7 feet or 8 feet above the ground. The examples 

 first described are unique, and if trees can enclose stones 

 in such quantities, and retain them within their substance 

 so tenaciously, we have transporting agents capable, under 

 certain conditions, of distributing terrigenous material over 

 sea-beds to an extent not hitherto appreciated. — Dr. A. B. 

 Rendle : Specimen of heather (Erica cincrea) found near 

 ."Vxminster in which the flowers were replaced by dark 

 red leaf-buds of about the same size as the flowers. The 

 red leaf-buds, which occupy the position of flowers, consist 

 each of short, strongly ascending leaves arranged in super- 

 posed whorls of four : the four lines have often a spiral 

 twist in the upper part of the bud. The leaf-arrangement 

 resembles that of the flower, not of the foliage leaves. 

 The leaves of these special buds differ in form from the 

 foliage leaves in that they are upwardly concave with a 

 bluntlv keeled back. Tliev are thirty-two or more in 



