Friederich Martens, Plants

In 1671 the German physician Friderich Martens (1635–1699) travelled on a whaling ship through the Norwegian Sea to Spitsbergen. During his travels he conducted scientific observations of plants and animals as well as the climate of the Svalbard archipelago. After his return to Hamburg, he published his notes in the book Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise-Beschreibung, gethan im Jahre 1671 which also included a range of illustrations. This drawing shows plants from the arctic, among them a specimen of snow saxifrage (a) and stonecrop (c).

Plants, Copperplate illustrations, 1671, artist: Friederich Martens; source: Martens, Friedrich: Spitzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise Beschreibung gethan im Jahr 1671, Hamburg 1675, page 161, digital copy: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, https://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ180618303, Non-commerical use permitted (NoC-NC/1.0/), http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/.