54 VOYAGE INTO 



the other like a finger ; the size also is different, for some 

 have but three fingers, and others have more. 



The flower is yellow, the leaves of the flower are roundish, 

 how many I observed not : the root is woody, somewhat 

 thick, with small fibers, a little scaly at the top ; it tastes dry 

 and astringent like tormentil. 



In the herbals I could find none liker it than that which 

 Lohelius calleth Fragaria Si/hes(ris mhiime Vesca sive ste- 

 rilis, and in the universal Iferdumish Herbal, in the 70th 

 chapter of the 17th book, by the name of Fragaria non 

 fragisera vel non Vesca ; yet it differs in the flower and leaf, 

 for the leaf in my flowers is cut deeper, and the flower of 

 his is white. 



CHAPTER XL 



Of the Rock Plant. 



This plant belongeth to those called icier by the Dutchmen, 

 and fucus in Latin. 



It has a broad flat stalk like a leaf, and yet there sprout 

 out of it many equally broad leaves like it, as twiggs out of 

 a tree ; at the top of the stalks there are little narroAV longish 

 leaves, some have five, others seven of these, of a yellow 

 colour, as the herb is also, and they are transparent like glew ; 

 I know not whether one may take them for its flowers. Close 

 to these grow other oblong leaves, that are hollow, and as it 

 was blown up and fill'd with wind, and many lesser bladders 

 round about close to one another. The leaves that are blown 

 up have nothing in them but wind, for when I pressed them 

 together they gave a little bounce ; whether these small 

 bladders have seeds in them or no I could not observe. 



The seamen informed me, that from the seeds of that plant 

 the small sea-snails are produced ; but I am not satisfied 



