224 COOK'S VOYAGE TO FEB. 



ever resided there before; and one that we used to 

 call scurvy-grass, though entirely different from the 

 plant to which we give that name. This, however, is 

 far preferable to ours for common use; and may be 

 known by its jagged leaves, and small clusters of 

 white flowers on the top. Both sorts were boiled 

 every morning, with wheat ground in a mill, and 

 with portable soup, for the people's breakfast, and 

 also amongst their pease-soup, for dinner. Sometimes 

 they were used as salad, or dressed as greens. In 

 all which ways they are good; and together with the 

 fish, with which we were constantly supplied, they 

 formed a sort of refreshment, perhaps little inferior 

 to what is to be met with in places most noted by 

 navigators for plentiful supplies of animal and vege- 

 table food. 



Amongst the known kinds of plants met with here, are 

 common and rough bindweed; night-shade and nettles, 

 both which grow to the size of small trees; a shrubby 

 speedwell, found near all the beaches; sow-thistles, 

 virgin's bower, vanelloe, French willow, euphorbia, 

 and crane's bill; also cudweed, rushes, bull-rushes, 

 flax, all-heal, American night-shade, knot-grass, 

 brambles, eye-bright, and groundsel; but the species 

 of each are different from any we have in Europe. 

 There is also polypody, spleenwort, and about twenty 

 other different sort of ferns, entirely peculiar to the 

 place; with several sorts of mosses, either rare, or 

 produced only here; besides a great number of other 

 plants, whose uses are not yet known, and subjects fit 

 only for botanical books. 



Of these, however, there is one which deserves 

 particular notice here, as the natives make their 

 garments of it; and it produces a fine silky flax, 

 superior in appearance to any thing we have, and, 

 probably, at least as strong. It grows every where 

 near the sea, and in some places a considerable way 

 up the hills, in bunches or tufts, with sedge-like 

 leaves, bearing, on a long stalk, yellowish flowers, 





