272 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 
In English Flora, vol. 4, p. 70, Sir J. E. Smith remarks, “ Z. 
dentata of Willdenow, separated by him, at my suggestion, from our 
British plant (Z. palustris), was long ago well distinguished by Mi- 
cheli, t. 34, fig. 2; and if he be correct as to the two cells of its an- 
ther and the toothed stigma, nothing can be more distinct. It may 
probably be found in England.” From Hooker’s Comp. to Curtis’s 
Bot. Mag. vol. 1, p. 191, we learn that in 1835 a Zannichellia was 
found by Mr. J. E. Bowman at Gresford, near Wrexham, Denbigh- 
shire, and also by Mr. Johns in Cornwall, which corresponded with 
dentata in having the stigma large, membranous, and toothed, pedun- 
cle and pedicles of the capsules very short and nearly wanting, the an- 
thers two-celled, and the embryo with 6-7 folds; whilst in Z. palus- 
tris the stigma was large and entire, the capsules pedicellate and 
seated on a distinct common stalk, the anthers four-celled, and the 
embryo with four folds. In the same year Mr. C. C. Babington col- 
lected in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, specimens of Zannichellia 
with two, three, and four-celled anthers on the same plant. Sir W. 
J. Hooker, in commenting on the above discoveries, says that the 
latter considerably lessens the value of the character derived from the 
anthers ; and that the toothing of the stigma being undoubtedly vari- 
able, and not confined to the sessile-fruited Zannichellia ; that the 
folds in the embryo being also variable in both ; and that the only 
constant character being the sessile or stalked fruit, which, however, 
forms no part of Micheli’s character of his original dentata, in which 
the capsules are equally pedicellate as in his palustris ; he must con- 
elude the Z. dentata of Micheli, Willdenow, and Smith, to be merely 
a variety of Z. palustris. 
Possessing, through the kindness of my friends Bowman and Ba- 
bington, authentic specimens of their plants, a careful examination of 
them has shown that the Gresford plant (see fig. 17) has the anthers 
two-celled, the stigma (a) peltate, slightly concave, papillose, irregu- 
larly crenulate or toothed ; the fruit (b) nearly sessile, the carpels on 
very short pedicles, their dorsal margin with a denticulate membrane, 
and the anterior one with one or two distant teeth; and the style 
about half the length of the carpel, and variable in its curvature or 
direction. In Babington’s plant (see fig. 18) the stigma (a) is also 
peltate, concave, papillose, and irregularly crenulate or toothed; the 
fruit (b) nearly sessile; the carpels on very short pedicles, the dorsal 
margin bearing one distinct denticulate membrane, and having on each 
side of it, in the upper portion of the carpel, another interrupted den- 
