498 Transactions. — Botany. 



Abt. XLVIII. — On Zannichellia and Lepilsena in New 



Zealand. 



By T. KiKK, F.L.S. 



\Read before the Wellingtoji Philosophical Society, 26th February, 



1896.-] 



Zannichellia 'palustris, L., was first discovered in New_ Zea- 

 land by Colenso ; it was included by Sir Joseph Hooker in his 

 original " Flora of New Zealand," pubhshed in 1853, and sub- 

 sequently in the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora," 

 Colenso's habitat on the East Cape being for many years the 

 only local station recorded for the plant. On its discovery in 

 the Waikato in 1870, the learned Baron von Mueller sug- 

 gested the strong probability of its belonging to the Austrahan 

 genus Lejnlcena, the principal species of which were formerly 

 confused with Zannichellia, and, at his request, some of the 

 Waikato specimens were submitted for his examination, when 

 they were kindly identified by him as Lejnlcena preissii, F. 

 Mueller. The plant exhibited a very close resemblance in- 

 deed to a European form of Zannichellia, with the achenes on 

 long slender pedicels, the similarity extending even to the 

 form of the ripe fruits. This identification, however, led 

 local botanists to assume, somewhat hastily, that, as in Aus- 

 tralia so in New Zealand, all plants hitherto indentified as 

 Zannichellia must be referred to Le-pilcena ; and the older 

 genus was completely neglected until three or four years ago, 

 when Mr. Petrie detected Zannichellia ])alustr is in Otago, and 

 I had the pleasure of collecting it in flower and fruit in the 

 Makararoa Stream, Hawke's Bay, a locality which affords 

 strong support to the accuracy of Sir Joseph Hooker's deter- 

 mination of Colenso's original specimens. As it is probable 

 that both Zannichellia and Lepilcena are of more frequent 

 occurrence than has hitherto been supposed, it seems desir- 

 able that attention should be drawn to the chief characters 

 by which the members of these closely-allied genera may be 

 most readily identified. Both are inconspicuous submerged 

 aquatics, with capillary stems and leaves, and axillary apeta- 

 lous flowers ; the leaves in both are from |in. to upwards of 

 lin. in length. 



Zannichellia is monoecious. The male flower is enclosed in 

 a membranous bract, and consists of a single sagittate anther, 

 with the filament at first short and stout, but ultimately much 

 elongated. The female flower is also protected by a mem- 

 branous bract, and consists of from four to six carpels sessile 

 or shortly stalked, with short styles and capitate stigmas. The 



