23S STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Similar oppofitions prefent themfelves in th* 

 mod frightful of climates. Martens, of Hamburg, 

 who has given us a very good account of Spitz - 

 bergen, tells us, that when the feamen belonging 

 to the veflel in which he navigated along it's 

 coafts, heaved Up the anchor, they feldom failed 

 to bring up with it a very broad leaf of the alga 

 marina, fix feet in length, and attached to a tail 

 as long : this leaf was fmooth, of a brown colour, 

 fpotted with black, ftriped with two white ftripes, 

 and made in form of a tongue : he calls it the 

 plant of the rock. But what is very lingular, it 

 was ufually accompanied by a hairy plant, about 

 fix feet in length, like a horfe's tail, and formed 

 of hairs fo fine, that one might denominate it, 

 fays he, the filk of the rock. He found on thofe 

 difmal Ihores, where the empire of Flora is in 

 fuch a ftate of defolation, the cocblearia (fcurvy 

 grafs) and the forrel, which grew together. The 

 leaf of the firft is rounded in form of a fpoon, that 

 of the other is lengthened into the fhape of the 

 iron head of an arrow. A Phyfician of confider- 

 able ability, of the name of Bartholin*, has ob- 

 ferved, that the virtues of their faits are as oppofite 

 as their configurations ; thofe of the firft are al- 

 kalis, thofe of the other are acids; and from their 

 union refults what medical men call a neutral fait, 



* See CbomeVs Hiftory of Common Plants. 



which 



