Notices of Memoirs—Dr. O. Gordou—On the Dolomites. 425 
well-known plants of the lignite of the Wetterau, which is generally 
classed as Upper Oligocene. In certain cases better specimens showed 
also that Heer’s supposed peculiar species of Bovey belong to well- 
known forms of the Rhine lignite—his Vitis britannica, for instance, 
being only a crushed seed of Vitis teutonica. Several curious new 
species were discovered, including the earliest known fudbus, a 
peculiar Potamogeton, and a new genus of Boraginee. 
A study of the cone and leaf of Sequoia couttsie proves that it is 
a true Sequoia, and not a species of Arthrotaxis. 
Il].—EpinsureH Gerotocicat Society. 
A GEOLOGICAL work by Dr. Ogilvie Gordon, entitled Zhe 
Thrust-masses in the Western District of the Dolomites in South 
Tyrol, has just been published by the Edinburgh Geological Society in 
a Special Part of their Zransactions, vol. 1x; price 7s. The text 
extends to 91 pages, and is illustrated by 2 geological maps, 
18 coloured geological sections, and a number of original photographs 
and sketches. Mrs. Gordon describes a series of gigantic thrust-masses 
composed, in that district, of Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous 
rocks that have travelled from east to west above the older crystalline 
rocks of the Central Alps, and have subsequently been downthrown 
along with the older rocks and suffered further deformation in the 
region of the Dolomites. The base of the series is composed of 
brecciated rock-material belonging to the floor over which the 
subjacent mass has passed and to the lower layers of the subjacent 
mass. The lower layers of each mass differ from place to place, 
as they were masses that had been already plicated in east and west 
direction, and in the course of the overthrust movements new 
plicational forms were superinduced both in north and south and 
in east and west directions. Similarly the cross-faults intersect, or 
coalesce with, the E._W., E.N.E.-W.S.W., and W.N.W.-E.S.E. 
faults, and form fault-networks which completely isolate the adjacent 
areas in the crust. The chief Dolomite mountains, such as the 
Langkofi and Plattkofl Massive and Sella Massive, are areas of inthrow 
surrounded by faults, within which the higher thrust-slices have been 
preserved. 
One of the geological maps shows four successive thrust-masses— 
(1) a basal thrust-mass mainly composed of the Permian Quartz 
Porphyry and Gréden Sandstones, the Lower Trias, and the Caleareous 
facies of Muschelkalk and Marmolata Limestone; (2) a thrust-mass 
comprising fragments of the older strata and widely extended exposures 
of the porphyritic lavas and tufaceous and dolomite facies of Middle 
Trias; (8) a thrust-mass belonging to the same facies as (2), but 
mainly composed of Schlern Dolomite, with varying thicknesses of the 
lavas and tuffs below it and of Upper Trias and younger horizons 
above it; (4) a thrust-mass mainly composed of Upper Triassic 
Dolomite associated with infolds of younger Mesozoic strata. The 
other geological map shows the detailed stratigraphy of the Langkofl 
and Plattkofl Massive. This mountain has been regarded as a ‘ Coral- 
Reef’ of Middle Triassic age, but the supposed ‘reef’ peculiarities are 
