Reviews — B. B. Woodivard's Library Catalogue. 415 



and building and ornamental stones, and the report on the mineral 

 industries extends to only 15 pages. The bulk of the volume is 

 occupied by the following articles : — 



" The Granite Area of Barre," by G. I. Finlay. 



" The Terranes of Orange County, Vermont," by C. H. Richardson. 



" The Geology of Grand Isle," by G. H. Perkins. 



" Petrographic Description of the Dikes of Grand Isle," by 

 H. W. Shimer. 



III. — Plumasitb, an Oligoclase-Corundum Eock near Spanish 

 Peak, California. By A. C. Lawson. Bull. Dep. Geol. Univ. 

 California, 1903, vol. iii, pp. 219-229. 



IN 1898 Morozewicz proved experimentally that corundum is 

 capable of crystallising from an igneous magma containing an 

 excess of alumina ; since then corundum-syenites have been described 

 from India, the Urals, Ontario, and Montana. Previously, corundum 

 had not been recognised as an essential constituent of igneous rocks. 

 The corundiferoHs igneous rock now described occurs as a dyke, 

 15 feet in width, intersecting amphibole-peridotite. It is composed 

 of a coarse allotriomorphic granular aggregate of white oligoclase 

 with embedded crystals (acute rhombohedra) of pale violet-blue 

 corundum, the two minerals being present in the proportion of 

 84: to 16 respectively. To this new type of rock the name Plumasite, 

 from the locality, Plumas County, is given. The rock of other 

 portions of the same dyke consists only of white felspar without 

 corundum. 



IV. — Palacheite. By A. S. Eakle. Bull. Dep. Geol. Univ. 

 California, 1903, vol. iii, pp. 231-236. 



rpHE mineral to which this new name is given occurs abundantly 

 J_ as a recent formation in the old workings of the Eedington 

 mercury mine, Knoxville, California. The brick-red crystals are 

 monoclinic, and their chemical composition is expressed by the 

 formula FeoOj . 2 MgO . 4 SO3 +15H,0. Although stated to be 

 a new mineral, it is not proved to differ essentially from the 

 imperfectly described rubrite. 



I?, :E! "V I IE "W" S. 



I. — A Great Catalogue of Books on the Natural Sciences. 



Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Drawings in the 

 British Museum (Natural History). Vol. i, A-D (500pp.). By 

 Bernard Barham Woodward. 4to. London : printed by 

 order of the Trustees, 1903. Price £1. 



WHEN the Departments of Zoology, Geology, Mineralogy, and 

 Botany were housed at Bloomsbury, each had its own small 

 library of working books, but obtained such other works as were 

 required from the great library of the Printed Books Department. 

 When these Departments were removed to Cromwell Road in 



