¶ The Description.
THis elegant plant, which Clusius re∣ceiued from Cortusus by the name of Myriophyllum Pelagicum, is thus described by him: As much (saith hee) as I could coniecture by the picture, this was some cubit high, hauing a straight stalke, suffi∣ciently slender, diuided into many bran∣ches, or rather branched leaues, almost like those of Ferne, but far finer, bending their tops like the branches of the Palme, of a yellowish colour: the top of the stalk adorned with lesser leaues, ended in cer∣taine scales or cloues framed into a head; which are found to containe no other seed than tender plants already formed, in shape like to the old one: which falling, sinke to the bottome of the sea, and there take root and grow, and so become of the same magnitude as the old one from whence they came. The stalke is fastned with most slender and more than capilla∣rie fibres, in stead of a root, not vpon rocks and Oister shells, as most other sea plants are, but vpon sand or mud in the bottome of the sea: this stalke when it is drie is no lesse brittle than glasse or Coralline; but greene and yet growing it is as tough and flexible as Spartum or Matweed.