CHAP. XXXIX.] SPRLNG FLOWERS GEOLOGY. 263 



Galeville. We passed through the gay town of Saratoga Springs, 

 where the mineral waters burst out from &quot;the Lower Silurian,&quot; 

 or most ancient fossiliferous rocks. We saw many picturesque 

 spots, especially the waterfall called Baaten Kill, near Galeville, 

 but no grand or striking scenery. Among the plants in blossom, 

 we gathered Anemone nemorosa, Trientalis americana (less 

 beautiful than our British Trientalis europcea), Cypripedium 

 pubescens, Geranium sylvaticum, three species of violet (all 

 without scent), Homtonia ccerulea, Gnaplialium perenne, and 

 in several copses, the beautiful Polygala paucijlora, which might 

 be truly said 



&quot; To purple all the ground with vernal flowers.&quot; 



Whether, in this part of the United States, there are any fos 

 siliferous rocks older than the Lower Silurian, was the geological 

 point at issue ; and the question resembled one on which an 

 animated controversy had lately been carried on in Great Britain, 

 in regard to the relative ages of the &quot; Cambrian&quot; and &quot; Silu 

 rian&quot; groups. As those strata, called Cambrian, which contained 

 organic remains, were found to be nothing more than highly 

 disturbed and semi-crystalline Silurian rocks, so I believe the 

 formations called Taconic in the United States, to have claim to 

 no higher antiquity, and to be simply Silurian strata much altered, 

 and often quite metamorphic. 



