﻿160 J. 8. Gardner — On JEUingshausen' s Theory 



I have to add to the above that I visited the summit of Mount 

 Hermon during the summer of 1875, and while there obtained from 

 the live rock, near the highest point at Kasr Antar, a specimen of 

 Hhynchonella lacunosa. The specimen was not perfect, but there 

 could not be much doubt about what it was. It is evident then 

 that we have at last obtained satisfactory evidence of the existence 

 of Jurassic formations in Syria. The beds on the eastern slope of 

 Mount Hermon are without doubt the White Jura and the Brown 

 Jura of the Germans. These beds are examined at best advantage 

 near Mejdel esh Shems, a small village about two hours north-east of 

 Banias. The strata dip to the south-east and disappear under the 

 Hauran basalt, which here reaches its limit. This Jura formation, 

 however, does not seem to be limited to this place, but evidently 

 reaches to the highest summit of Hermon, thus establishing the 

 geological position of this mountain. 



I have a large collection of these Jurassic fossils ; but to Dr. 

 Oscar Fraas, of Stuttgart, is due the credit of identifying them. 



V. — On Bauon C. von Ettingshausen's Theory of the Develop- 

 ment OF Vegetation on the Earth. 

 By J. Staekie Gardner, F.G.S. 

 I. Genetic relationship} of the Tertiary Flora-elements^ to the living Floras. 



[Aus dem LXIX. Bande. der Sitzb. der k. Akad. der Wissensch. I. Abth. Marz- 



Heft, 1874.] 



Baron Etttngshausen has forwarded to me from Graz a series 

 of papers, relating more especially to the Fossil Floras of the Ter- 

 tiary Periods. We have been made familiar with these mainly 

 through the translations of the works of Heer, linger, and De La 

 Harpe; but to most of the readers of this Journal the work and 

 opinions of other continental palseontologists, such as Ettingshausen, 

 Massalongo, and Saporta, are unknoM'u. It may, therefore, not be 

 out of place, pending the contemplated publication by the Pal^onto- 

 graphical Society of a monograph on the British Fossil Eocene 

 Flora, to give in the Geological Magazine a brief analysis of their 

 theories. 



In the first paper under consideration Baron von Ettingshausen 

 states that the present vegetation is but a phase in the develop- 

 ment of plants, and has resulted from earlier and preparative con- 

 ditions. By careful study of living plants, we may trace their 

 genetic connexion with those of Tertiary times, and even with still 

 more ancient Floras. But in this research, at present, the most 

 important of Fossil Floras are those of the Tertiary Period, on 

 account of their greater resemblance to existing forms. 



In this period the types of actual living plants were in existence, 

 although not then characterizing distinct phyto-regions, as we now see 

 them, but all growing in close proximity. As examples of this we 

 find, in the same beds of the Tertiary formation, remains of European 



1 I have preserved the original term Flora-element, although it is unfortunately 

 open to more interpretations than the sense in which it is here used. 



