30 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
as the Iceland ‘melr’ apparently does not grow in Iceland at all,’ but 
in Norway and Sweden bears the names Sand-Roir (Sand Reed) and 
Margrüs (Sea Grass); there can be no question that the “hveiti” 
of the early Norsemen was Elymus arenarius. 
The “mesurr” wood mentioned in the sagas has generally been 
accepted as some species of Maple, and this interpretation prevails 
in the notable series of citations given in the Century Dictionary under 
MAZER. Yet, as stated by Reeves, “it has also been suggested that the 
word mausurr, mosurr, may be allied to the modern Swedish Masbjórk, 
veined-birch, German, Maser-birke, and again [cf. Grónl. hist. 
Mindesm. vol. i. p. 280] to the German Meussdorn, a view which 
Angrim Jonsson was the first to advance. .... That the tree called 
mosurr was also indigenous in Norway is in a manner confirmed by a 
passage in the Short Story of Helgi Thorisson [Páttr Helga Pórissonar], 
contained in Flatey Book [vol. i, p. 359]: *One summer these brothers 
engaged in a trading voyage to Finmark in the north, having butter 
and pork to sell to the Finns. They had a successful trading expedi- 
tion, and returned when the summer was far-spent, and came by day 
to a cape called Vimund. ‘There were very excellent woods here. 
They went ashore, and obtained some * mosurr' wood. ‘The character 
of this narrative, and the locality assigned to the 'mosurr' trees, 
affects the trustworthiness of the information. It is reasonably clear, 
however, that the wood was rare and, whether it grew in Finmark or 
not, it was evidently highly prized.” ? 
The statement that “the locality [northward toward Finmark] 
assigned to the ‘mgsurr’ trees" in the Story of Helgi Thorisson “ affect[s] 
the trustworthiness of the information," indicates Reeves's belief that 
the *mosurr" trees were Maple. It is certainly true that the Maple 
of Norway (Acer platanoides) is confined to the southern half of the 
country; but Birch trees, according to the distinguished Norwegian 
botanist, Blytt, occur as far north as Finmark,* so that they could 
readily have been seen by Helgi and his companions on their return 
southward from that region. 
1 Though included by Hjaltalín in his Islenzk Grasafraedi (1830), the Sand Reed 
(Arundo or Ammophila arenaria) is not recognized as an Iceland plant by either Gronlund 
(1881) or Stefan Stefánsson (1901). 
2 Reeves, l. c. 170. 
3 See Blytt, Norges Flora, ii. 1087 (1876); also Nyman, Conspectus Florae Europaeae 
135 (1878). 
5 See Blytt, Norges Flora, i. 402, 403 (1861). 
