7'22 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1743. 



rods, starworts, and above all in the corona solis, flore parvo, tuberosa radice, 

 of M. Tournefort, vulgarly called Jerusalem artichokes, the seeds of which, 

 from the shortness of our summer, having never as yet ripened in England 

 He further adds, that though many species of mushrooms are eatable, and 

 some of them better flavoured than the common sort, the gardeners only pro- 

 pagate that sort with red gills, called, by way of excellence, champignon, a 

 name given by the French to all sorts of mushrooms ; but some descriptive 

 word is added to them, by which they may be distinguished from this. The 

 method of propagating mushrooms, according to the usual practice, from their 

 suckers, was first mentioned by La Brosse, in his treatise De la Nature des 

 Plantes, and afterwards by M. Tournefort, in the Memoirs of the Academy of 

 Sciences, Anno 1707, page 72. 



Of the Disappearance of Saturjis Ring, in the Years 1743 and 1744. By M. 

 Godofred Heinsius, of Petersburg. N°471, p. 602. 



This paper is of no use at present. 



j^n Abstract of a Natural History of Greenland, by Hans Egede, entitled, Det 

 gamle Gronlands Ferlustrastion, eller Naturel Historic, af Hans Egede. Kio- 

 benhabn, 1741, Ato. Communicated by John Green, M.D. N°471, p. 607. 



Greenland lies about 160 English miles west from Iceland, beginning at 59° 

 40' north latitude. Its east side stretches to Spitzbergen, in 78 to 80° latitude, 

 and believed to be an island separate from Greenland. 



Its west side is known to 70° latitude. If Greenland is an island, or joined 

 to other countries, it is not known for a certainty, but probably joins to Ame- 

 rica on the north-west side : for between America and Greenland, stretches 

 the fretum, or bay, called in the sea-charts Davis's Straits, which is navigated 

 by them and other nations on account of the whale-fishery, but to the bottom 

 of this sound no ship has ever been. 



Greenland is a high rocky country, which is always covered with ice and 

 snow, which never thaws except near the sea. The highest land can be seen 

 80 English miles from the sea. The whole coast is fortified with large and 

 small islands. It has several firths or rivers, which run a long way within land ; 

 among which is Baal's River, where the first Danish colony was fixed in 1721, 

 which runs 80 miles within land. 



Greenland was first discovered by the Norwegians and Icelanders ; and the 

 brave Raude, who first discovered it in 982, praised it, and persuaded several 

 of his countrymen to inhabit it ; and .it the instance of Oluf Tryggeson, first 

 Christian king in Norway, carried a priest with him, who taught and baptized 



