xviii Annual Report. [February, 1916 



named; ten entirely new species have been described in the 



Kew Bulletin. 



Prof. S. C. Banerji described an instance of mechanical sym- 

 biosis of Ficus bengalensis with Barassus flabellifer. 



Mr. I. H. Burkill, in a note on the Terai Forests between 

 the Gandok and the Tista, discusses the influence which man, 

 aided by fire, has exercised on the history of the Terai belt, 

 and the part played by the river-deposited sand-cones in deter- 

 mining the trade routes from Tibet to the plains of Bihar and 



Bengal. 



Geology. 



In his highly interesting paper on the Geological History of 

 Southern India Dr. W. F. Smeeth gives an account of the main 

 components of the Archaean complex as exhibited in Mysore. 

 The views expressed by the author differ considerably from those 

 held by various other Indian geologists, in so far as he consi- 

 ders the Dharwars to be the oldest of the rocks exposed in 

 the Mysore region, the conglomerates to be largely crush- 

 conglomerates formed in shear zones in the schists or gneisses, 

 and the banded ferruginous quartzites to represent possibly 

 highly ferruginous sills subsequently altered, their banded charac- 

 ter being largely secondary. He further suggests that many of 

 the quartzites, which are sometimes felspathic and at other 

 times micaceous, are crushed and recrystallized quartz- veins or 

 quartz-porphyries and that the aqueous origin of a number of 

 the bands and beds of dolomite and limestone is doubtful. 

 He holds that at the close of the Dharwar age the whole of 

 Southern India was covered with a mantle of Dharwar rocks, 

 which later on was penetrated and eaten into by successive 

 intrusions of granite ; and that the earliest of the post-Dhar- 

 warian granites and gneisses is a comparatively fine-grained 

 micaceous rock, often characterized by the presence of grains 

 of opalescent quartz ; to this rock he assigns the name of 

 Champion Gneiss. The latter appears to have been intruded 

 into and cut out by rocks forming the great gneissic complex of 

 Peninsular India, consisting of a great variety of granites. The 

 author maintains that evidences of intrusion of the " Peninsular 

 Gneiss " into the Dharwars are abundant, whilst the gneiss 

 itself contains numerous lenses, patches, and fragments of 

 Dharwars. The Peninsular gniess is followed by the Charnockite 

 Series, a huge plutonic complex characterized by the frequent 

 presence of hypersthene. Whatever the views may be which 

 finally will prevail, there is no doubt that Dr. Smeeth's paper 

 will act as an incentive to further useful work in th^s highly 

 complex field of research. 



In his Palaeontological Notes from Hazara Prof. Hem- 

 chandra Dasgupta describes some fossils obtained from the 

 Triassic, Jurassic, Gieumal rocks and Tertiary rocks of Hazara, 



