of Serpentine, Sfc. in the Apennines. 187 



and published, is, that the rocks beneath the serpentines 

 belong to the transition series. Geologists who have had 

 Dumerous opportunities of seeing and studying these rocks, 

 Messrs Von Buch, Buckland, &c. do not admit this deter- 

 mination, and regard them as much more modern. 



I am disposed, notwithstanding the very respectable au*- 

 thority I have above cited, to place myself on the side of 

 the latter geologists, and especially M. von Buch, and to 

 refer these rocks to the inferior sediment formation, i. e, 

 to a formation or collection of rocks which they much more 

 resemble in all the characters they present, than those of 

 the true transition class. 



It is by comparing the rocks in question with those which 

 are admitted by almost all geologists, some as transition 

 rocks, others as inferior sediment or alpine rocks, that the 

 solution of this question may be more surely determined. 



But in order to render the comparison more perfect, the 

 characters of the formation beneath the Apennine serpentine 

 must be completed, by examining the rocks in other places 

 than those I have mentioned, which, appearing to me of 

 exactly the same formation, and being admitted as such 

 by Italian geologists, present in their structure, in the bodies 

 they contain, and in their position, characteristic peculi- 

 arities, that the positions of Rochetta, Prato, and even Pie- 

 tramala, do not oifer in so clear and complete a manner. ■ 



§ 1. IdentUy of the rocks beneath the serpentines above 

 described, with rocks in other parts oj the Apennines. 



The first place I shall notice, because it is not far distant 

 from those which have formed the principal subject of this 

 memoir, because I could study it with care, and because it 

 presents in a complete manner the rocks composing th« 

 calcareo-sandstone formation, in the park (pare) of Doccia 

 di Sesto, to the N, of Florence, a village in which is situa- 

 ted the porcelain manufactory of the Marquis Ginori. Th« , 



