Thisscurvy-grass sends forth a great many leaves from one root, that spread themselves round about upon the ground. The stalk grows out of the middle of these leaves, which is a great deal lower than in our country, with a few leaves underneath the sprouts. The flowers are of four white leaves, they grow many on the same stalk one above the other; when one flower fades, another cometh in its room when the flower is past; the seed appears in a longish box, as you may see in the figure; when, on the contrary, in ours the seed is found in a round one. The root is white, somewhat thick and streight, with some small fibers below.

A great quantity of this plant is found on the rocks, where they are not much exposed to the east and north winds; I found it most in the South, English, and Danish havens, the earth was quite covered with it in the Danish.

It was the first herb I found in Spitzbergen, when we landed the first time; it was so small I could hardly discern it to be scurvy-grass, but afterwards we found it in its full perfection, and it seeded in the month of July. It is observable, that the leaves of this herb have but little sharpness at Spitzbergen, and therefore is much weaker than the scurvy-grass of our countries, so that we eat it instead of salad at Spitzbergen, which we could not do our scurvy-grass. My figure is like that cut given in the 3rd book, 35th chap., of the German Herbal of Matthiolus.