DB. JOHNSTON ON ANACHAKIS ALSINASTEUM. 287 



On the Discovery of AnacharU ahinastrum in Berwickshire. 

 By Geoeqe Johnston, M.D., &c. 



On the 3d of August, 1842, I found, in the lake at Dunse 

 Castle, a plant, which interested me from its neat and pecu- 

 liar habit. It grew, entirely submerged, amongst the ordi- 

 nary pond PotamogetonSj and a plant in flower could nowhere 

 be seen. A specimen was sent to Mr. Babington, and after- 

 wards, at his request, two or three other specimens were for- 

 warded to him ; and I learned, from Mr. Babington, that he 

 had submitted them to the inspection of Mr. Borrer. It is 

 unnecessary to say more than that my quest after the name 

 and character of the plant was very unsatisfactory ; and the 

 interest in it decayed and died away under the persuasion 

 that the plant might have been introduced into the lake with 

 some other aliens from the south. This persuasion was con- 

 firmed by Dr. Philip W. Maclagan, at a subsequent period, 

 who, on seeing a specimen in my possession, at once told me 

 it was an Udora, and, he believed, the same as the Canadian 

 species. I presumed, therefore, the more that it was foreign 

 to our district ; and my interest lay dormant, until revived 

 by the perusal of Mr. Babington's description of the Anacha- 

 ris ahinastrum, in the " Annals of Natural History" for Feb- 

 ruary, 1848, for in this Anacharis I immediately recognised 

 my Dunse Castle herbelet. 



On writing to Mr. Babington, he replied, that he "had to- 

 tally forgotten the plant" I had sent him, and the specimens 

 were lost. I could not comply with his demand for other 

 specimens, seeing that the habitat is sixteen 'miles distant 

 from my residence ; and to few provincial practitioners is 

 given the leisure to ride thirty-two miles in order to cull a 

 simple for the gratification of his own or of another's curio- 

 sity. My good fortune, however, was on the ascendant. A 

 few weeks only had passed over, when I again found the Ana- 

 charis in a habitat in which it was, beyond all doubt and 

 suspicion, most truly indigenous. On the 9th of August, 

 whilst angling in the Whitadder, at Newraills, in the Liber- 

 ties of Berwick, I was most agreeably surprised to find the 



