PLANTS OF XAGAI ISLAND 85 



gathered solely for my use and that of the Captain Commander, 

 For although I had made representations that our medicine 

 chest, from the very beginning, had been miserably supplied, 

 inasmuch as it was mostly filled with plasters, ointments, oils, 

 and other surgical remedies enough for four to five hundred men 

 in case of a battle but had none whatever of the medicines most 

 needed on sea voyages and serviceable against scurvy and 

 asthma, our commonest cases; and although I had therefore 

 requested the detail of several men for the purpose of collecting 

 such quantity of antiscorbutic herbs as would be enough for 

 all, nevertheless even this proposition, so valuable to all and for 

 which I merited gratitude besides, was spurned. Later, however, 

 there were regrets enough, and when we had scarcely more than 

 four able-bodied men left on the vessel, I was tearfully begged to 

 help and assist, which then, though with empty hands, I did to 

 the utmost of my strength and means, although it was not my 

 office and my services had always been scorned before the dis- 

 aster. It "5 must also at last have caused even the coarsest and 



ble, as no true rhubarb is known to occur in any of the regions in which 

 Steller collected. The confusion may be due to the fact that some of the 

 species of Rumex have been used as substitutes for rhubarb and were 

 known under various names, as monk's rhubarb, false rhubarb, etc. 

 R. occidentalis has been collected on the Shumagins both by J. Kincaid 

 and by Dr. F. A. Golder (specimen in the U. S. National Herbarium). 



Of Centiana several species are known from the Shumagins. The one 

 referred to by Steller is probably G. acuta Alichx. or G. frigida, of which 

 specimens collected by Dr. Golder in the Shumagins are in the U. S. 

 National Herbarium. 



In this connection it is interesting to read the following explanation 

 of the name Herba hritannica for Rumex aquaticus, also known as water 

 rhubarb, as given in "AUgemeines Polyglotten-Lexicon der Natur- 

 geschichte," Vol. 2, Hamburg, 1794, col. 1184: "The name Britannica, 

 according to Munting, is said not to be derived from the island of that 

 name, but to be compounded from the Frisian hrit, to make fast; tan, 

 a tooth; ica or hica, ejection, and consequently to denote the power of 

 the plant to make loose or rickety teeth fast again." (S) 



195 Instead of "It" the MS has: "My services to them, under the 

 Divine blessing." 



