Plants

Tho the countrey is generaly coverd with an abundant verdure of grass and trees yet I cannot say that it is productive of so great a variety as many countries I have seen. The intire novelty however of the greatest part of what we found recompens’d us as natural historians for the want of variety. Sow thistle, garden nightshade, and perhaps 1 or 2 kinds of Grasses were exactly the same as in England, 3 or 4 kinds of Fern the same as those of the West Indies, and a plant or 2 that are common to almost all the world: these were all that had before been describd by any botanist out of about 400 species, except 5 or 6 which we ourselves had before seen in Terra del Fuego.

Eatable Vegetables there are very few. We indeed as people who had been long at sea found great benefit in the article of health by eating plentifully of wild Celery, and a kind of Cresses which grew every where abundan[t]ly near the sea side. We also once or twice met with an herb like that which the countrey people in England call Lambs Quarters or Fat hen,

Voyaging Accounts