406 Eruptive Origin of Granite and Serpentine in Asia Minor. 



rity of Dr. (Sir J, E.) Smith that, in one species of lichen, L. 

 exanthematicus, found on limestone rocks in Yorkshire and elsewhere, 

 the saucers, icTien old, leave a cavity in the stone. Linn. Trans, i. p. 81. 

 Withering's Arrangement of British Plants, vol. iv. p. 19. 



nsroTiOES OIF nvLEiMiones. 



I. — Eruptive Origin of GtRAnite and Serpentine in Asia Minor. 



IN the first volume of his " Geology of Asia Minor " (1867), M. de 

 Tchihatchef records his observations on the eruptive rocks of 

 that country. He advocates the igneous origin of granite, and as 

 some discussion has arisen on this subject in recent numbers of the 

 Geological Magazine, a notice of M. de Tchihatchef's opinions 

 may be of interest. 



Under the collective term "Eruptive Eocks" the author ranges 

 the following rocks, occurring in Asia Minor, which he considers to 

 be of igneous origin : — Dolerite, Basalt, Melaphyre, Pyroxene, Por- 

 phyry, Gneiss, Granite, Granulite, Syenite, and Serpentine. 



While advocating (with M. Naumann) the igneous origin of Gneiss, 

 Granite, and Syenite, the author has had particularly in view these 

 rocks as they are developed in Asia Minor, without wishing to deny 

 the possibility of their different (metamorphic) origin in other parts 

 of the globe. He further states that, although the metamorphic 

 theory has received a support in the discovery by M. Sismonda of 

 an equisetum in an erratic block of gneiss in the Alps, yet before 

 generalizing on this phenomenon we must assure ourselves whether 

 the gneiss of other countries furnishes arguments as conclusive in 

 favour of this interpretation. But in Asia Minor, not only has 

 nothing similar been discovered, but the gneiss is there found so 

 intimately associated with the granite that one canjiot but assign to 

 the two rocks a common origin, and as the granite presents under 

 more than one relation the character of an eruptive rock, he is of 

 opinion that we must not separate one from the other until proof to 

 the contrary is obtained. 



The serpentinous rocks occur as agents of upheaval in enormous 

 masses, intimately associated with the sedimentary deposits (Cre- 

 taceous and Eocene), and often intercalated among them. The 

 eruptive nature of these serpentines is indicated by their action on 

 the deposits with which they are found in contact, by the exterior 

 aspect of the rocks themselves, as well as by the manner in which 

 they are disposed. — H. B. W. 



II. — The Keuper Flora of North Tyrol. By Professor Ad. 



PiCHLER. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Geol. Inst. Vienna, February 19, 1867.] 



THE vegetable remains are imbedded in a sandstone, wliich differs 

 in no respect from the Keuper sandstone of Franconia. It 

 belongs to the " Upper Cardita-strata," and is associated with argil- 



