46 VOYAGE INTO 



cold mountains, there yet grow some plants for the nourish- 

 ment both of man and beast. The herbs grow to their per- 

 fection in a short time, for in June, when we first arrived at 

 Spitzbergen, we saw but very little green, and yet in Jidy 

 most of them were in flower, and some of them had their 

 seeds already ripe, whence we may observe the length of 

 their summer. I proceed to the description of those plants 

 which I had time to delineate, and begin with those that put 

 forth their leaves only at and about their roots, and have but 

 few or no leaves on their stalks. 



Then shall follow those that have single leaves on their 

 stalks, then those that have pairs of leaves or opposite ones, 

 afterwards those with three leaves, and then conclude with 

 the imperfect plants. 



CHAP. II. 



Of a riant loith Aloe-Leaves. 



It is a very pretty herb, and puts forth thick prickly and 

 sad green leaves, like those of aloes ; a brown naked stalk, 

 about half the length of your finger, whereon hang round 

 heads of flesh-coloured flowers in bunches, which are hardly 

 to be discerned by the naked eye, one flower close above 

 another, and near to another. 



Sometimes two stalks shoot out of one plant, one bigger 

 than the other. Yet each stalk has two of these bunches of 

 flowers. 



I could not delineate its seed for want of time. The root 



consists of many small fibres. We gathered it in great 



plenty on the 17th of July, behind the cookery of Harlem, 



in the running water. I know not well to what kind this 



' This seems to be Saxifraga trictispidata (see Appendix). 



