Brief Notices. 39 



deposits formed in old lagoons may now be covered up by blown 

 sands and silt : such places would probably repay investigation. 



R. H. 11. 



XIV. — Annual Report of the State Geologist, Tkavancoke, roii 

 THE TEAK 1091 M.E. pp. 21. Madras, 1917. 



rjlHIS report deals with the re-survey of the southern part of the 

 JL State. Tlie formations here found may be divided into the five 

 following groups : (1) crystalline rocks, (2) laterites, (3) limestones, 



(4) the Warkalay formation, (5) the recent deposits. The crystalline 

 rocks form part of the great charnoekite series : they are on the 

 whole intermediate in composition, containing little quartz. These 

 typical fresh charnockites are overlain on the higher ground by a 

 zone of leptynite, in which the felspar is kaolinized and the 

 hypersthene converted into garnet. The massive charnockites are 

 cut by numerous dykes of norite. The laterites are chiefl}^ of tlie 

 residual type formed from the crystalline rocks. The Warkalay beds 

 are mostly coarse red and yellow sands, and the argillaceous formation 

 known as teri probably forms part of this series, wliich is believed to 

 be of Cretaceous age. The occurrence of monazite in the Warkalay 

 and recent formations is dealt with in a separate report. The chief 

 minerals of economic value, besides monazite, are graphite and 

 pyrrhotite. 



R. H. R. 



XV. — Brief Notices. 



1. HoMCEOMORPHY. — A clcar exposition of homceomorphy as applied 

 to fossil Corals will be found iii a paper by W. D. Lang in the,Proc. 

 Geol. Assoc, xxviii (2), 1917. It forms the subject of a demonstra- 

 tion given to the members on the occasion of a visit to the British 

 Museum (Nat. Hist.). Mr. Lang deals with — (1) Diagnostic characters 

 of Corals in general and tests whereby fossil Corals may be known. 

 (2) Homceomorphy in general and its meaning when applied to fossil 

 Corals. (3) Cases of homceomorphy in Corals ; homceomorphy 

 between Corals and Polyzoa ; between Corals of different formations, 

 and between Corals from the same formation ; among Alcyonarian 

 Corals. (4) Connexion between homceomorphy and evolutionary 

 stages in Corals; " Alorphic Equivalence" of Buckman ; Radicals. 



(5) Relationship of Rugose Corals and Hexacorals ; homceomorphy 

 in Jurassic Hexacorals. Altogether an admirably useful paper, to 

 which the student can refer with advantage. 



2. Varro on Soils. — It may be well to recall to those who work 

 on soils the notes made by Varro in the first century B.C. in his 

 Eenim rusficarum, of wliich a new translation was issued in 191g in 

 Bohn's Classical Library (G. Bell & Sons) by Lloyd Storr-Best. 

 Chapter vi deals with the Soil, chapter vii the Site, and chapter ix 

 Farm Land. In chapter vii occurs the following passage, so 

 interesting to a geologist; Cn. Tremelius Scrofa is speaking: 

 '' AVlien I was in command of an army in Transalpine Gaul — in the 



