lOO 



NATURE 



[June 4, 1891 



for the display of volcanic energy on a vast scale. Great 

 sheets of augitic lava, together with tufif and agglomerate, 

 were erupted during the Miocene epoch, not only in 

 Northern Syria but in the East Jordanic region to the 

 south, and were again renewed in Post-Pliocene times. 

 It is probable that to volcanic action we must refer 

 the origin of some of the peculiar little lakes of Northern 

 Syria, such as those of Horns and Kara, one occupying 

 the bed of the Orontes, the other that of the Kara, where 

 the ground probably fell in and became filled with water. 

 The Pliocene period is represented by both marine and 

 freshwater strata, deposited in bays and depressions along 

 the margins of uprising lands, formed of all the older for- 

 mations, including those of the Miocene period. All of 

 these had been disturbed, upraised, and partially eroded 

 before the deposition of the Pliocene strata. In this, as 

 in other physical phenomena of Northern Syria, we are 

 reminded of those of Palestine and Egypt. Throughout 

 all this region the Nummulitic and Cretaceous strata were 

 disturbed and upraised into dry land, and subjected to 

 extensive denudation at the close of the Eocene and 

 again at the close of the Miocene epochs, so that the 

 stratigraphical continuity of these Tertiary formations has 

 been repeatedly broken. 



It may be worth while, in conclusion, to glance at the 

 prints of analogy, as well as of difference, between the 

 physical conditions of Syria and of the region to the south 

 of the Lebanon. In Northern Syria, and along the ranges 

 of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, the fundamental rocks on 

 which are superimposed the great calcareous formations 

 of Cretaceous and Tertiary ages consist of Devonian 

 schists, greywacke, and limestone,^ together with masses 

 of various igneous rock. In Southern Palestine and the 

 Sinaitic peninsula, on the other hand, the fundamental 

 rocks consist of granite, gneiss, various crystalline schists 

 of Archaean age, traversed by innumerable dykes of horn- 

 blendic, augitic, and felspathic rock ; surmounted at 

 intervals by Lower Carboniferous beds ; this is a remark 

 able contrast. But a still greater, perhaps, is to be found 

 at the next stage. All along the eastern border of the 

 Jordan Valley, south of the Sea of Galilee, extending 

 southwards along the table-land of Moab, Edom, and the 

 Arabah Valley, as well as through the Sinaitic peninsula, 

 and into Upper Egypt, the base of the Cretaceous series 

 is represented by the Nubian sandstone," a formation of 

 great persistency, and interesting from an architectural 

 point of view for its extensive use as a building-stone in 

 the great structures of Ancient Egypt ; as, for example, in 

 the colossal figures of Amenophis in the plain of Thebes, 

 as also in the temples and sepulchres of Petra. This 

 formation appears to be altogether wanting north of the 

 Lebanon, where, according to Herr Blanckenhorn, the 

 Cretaceous strata of the Turonian stage are the lowest of 

 the series.3 The points of contrast, however, here ter- 

 minate ; for over the whole region from Upper Egypt and 

 the Libyan Desert on the south to the Taurus Mountains 

 on the north, a distance of looo miles and beyond, the 

 Cretaceous and Eocene limestones were deposited, and 

 formed part of the floor of the ancient ocean, the original 

 limits of which it is hard to determine with any approach 

 to accuracy. 



\ As determined by Hamilton. Warington Smyth, Tchihatcheff, and others. 



- rrobably of N eocomian age. 



3 Representing th jse of the chalk-marl of England. 



NO. I 127, VOL. 44] 



At the close of the Eocene epoch this ocean bed was 

 subjected to powerful movements. Large tracts, including 

 the Libyan Desert and Egypt, Palestine and Syria, were 

 elevated into dry land ; while the strata were bent, folded, 

 and faulted along lines ranging generally from north to 

 south. To this period is to be referred the production 

 of the great Jordan-Arabah fault, which has now been 

 traced at intervals from the Gulf of Akabah to the valley 

 of the Orontes, a distance of over 350 miles, while the 

 main features, especially the mountains, had the outlines 

 which they now present marked out. During the Mio- 

 cene period, along with a partial re-submergence, volcanic 

 action came into play over a region generally bounded by 

 the Jordanic depression on the west, and extending from 

 the Arabian Desert to the base of the Taurus, and the 

 head waters of the Euphrates. In Northern Syria, ex- 

 tensive sheets of basaltic lava are found west of the 

 Orontes Valley, as well as at Antioch, Aleppo, and other 

 parts. At a later period, bordering on the present, fresh 

 eruptions were added. The region we have been con- 

 sidering has its natural boundary towards the north in 

 the Taurus range, where a system of E.-W. flexures take 

 the place of those of the region to the south, where (as 

 we have seen) the prevalent direction of the flexures is 

 meridional. Edward Hull. 



EUROPEAN BOTANY. 

 Plantcc EitropecB : enu7neratio systematica et synonymica 



platitarum phanerogamicarum in Europa sponte ere- 



scentiuin vel tnere inquilinarum. Autore K. Richter. 



Tomiis I., pp. 378. (Leipzig : Verlag von Wilhelm 



Engelmann, 1890.) 

 \ IT" HAT is most wanted in systematic botany at the 

 ♦ * present time is a general flora of Europe, worked 

 out for the different countries on one uniform plan, with 

 the sub-species and varieties placed in their proper sub- 

 ordination under the primary specific types, and the 

 synonyms worked out carefully. The number of plants 

 in Europe is about the same as in the United States. 

 For these Asa Gray planned a general flora in three 

 volumes, of which the middle one, containing the Gamo- 

 petalas, was published shortly before his death, and the 

 first and third left in a forward state of preparation. 

 Many years ago Mr. Benthani planned and carried out, 

 with the assistance of Baron von Mueller, a complete 

 flora of Australia. There are 40 or 50 per cent, more 

 plants in India than in Europe. Sir Joseph Hooker's 

 " Flora of British India," containing descriptions and 

 full synonymy of every species, has reached the end of 

 the Dicotyledons, and in the last part the Orchideas are 

 finished, so that five-sixths of the work is now done. 

 There is, however, no such book in existence as a general 

 descriptive flora of Europe. For Europe the difficulty 

 lies far more in the bibliography than in the plants them- 

 selves. An enormous number of subordinate forms have 

 been described under specific names, and the number 

 of channels of publication in the way of journals and re- 

 ports of societies becomes greater and greater every year. 

 Nyman's " Sylloge," published in 1854-55, and his later 

 " Conspectus," have been a great boon to all European 

 workers. Though they do not contain any descriptions, 

 they give; a tabular view of the whole European flora, 



