36 THE FIRST RUSSIAN BOTANIST. 



August 5th, and passed the North Cape on the 16th, but did not 

 reach St. Katherine's Docks until September 22nd. Immediately 

 on landing, on July IGfch, Tradescant writes : — 



"I found a bery growing lowe which in bery was muche like a 

 strawbery but of an amber coUer and of other fation of leaf : the 

 people eat the bery for a medsin against the skurbi the leaves be 

 muche like our Aviuce and of suclie a greene. I have brought 

 sume of them hom to show. I dried sume of the beryes to get 

 seede whearof I have sent par to Robiens of Paris." 



Hamel, of course, identifies this plant with Riibus Chmvavwriis, 

 the yellow cranberry or "moroschka" of the Russians, and points 

 out that "Avince" is "Avens," but curiously specifies (jetim 

 urbanum, instead of G. rivnle, which the foliage of the cloudberry 

 far more closely resembles. "Robiens," as Hamel says, was 

 Vespasian Robin, who is known from other sources to have been 

 one of Tradescant's correspondents. 



On July 20th the itinerary continues : — 



"I had one of the Emperor's boats to cari me from iland to 

 iland to see what things grewe upon them, wliear I found single 

 Rosses, wondros sweet, with many other things whiche I meane to 

 bringe with me." 



Of these roses the MS. elsewhere adds : — 



"I have seen roses, only single, in a great abundance, in my 

 estimation four or five acres together ; they be single, and much 

 like oure sinomont rose ; and who have the sense of smelling, say 

 they be marvelus sweete. I hope they will bothe growe and beare 

 heere, for amongst many that I brought home withe the roses upon 

 them, yet some on may grow." 



Here, besides the curious fact that the writer was deficient in 

 the sense of smell, we meet for the first time with the question as 

 to what species of wild rose it was which gave its name to that 

 island opposite the monastery of St. Nicholas which had been the 

 bead-quarters of the English merchants at Archangel down to 1591. 

 Hamel notes that no cultivated roses were introduced into Russia 

 until 1630; that there is a "Rosa Muscovita" in the "Museum 

 Tradescantianum" (p. 162), and a "Rosa sylvestris Russica, the 

 wild bryer of Muscovie" in Parkinson's Tlicutrum ; and that there 

 is also a "Rosa (tertia silvestris) Russica" or "Muscovia Briar" in 

 Salmon's English Herbtil (1710), pp. 962-3. As, however, Ruprecht 

 very wisely doubts the identity of this last plant with that of 

 Tradescant, it may be well to transcribe here the description in 

 Salmon : — 



"V. The third, or Muscovia Briar Rose. This "Wild Briar has 

 several reddish yellow Stalks rising from its Root, spotted or rather 

 bunched out as it were with Blisters in several places, with Prickles 

 thereon like the first Common Briar or Wild Rose. The Leaves are 

 not many, but small like the Common Wild Hedge Briar, or rather 

 smaller, and turning red in Summer. The Roses are single and 

 small, of a deep incarnate color." 



I am not sure that I know the Rosa acicularis of Ruprecht's 

 Flores Samojedorum, nor do I think that I visited the original Rose 



