990 



not detect a single flower on any of these, owing, as I suppose, to their 

 being too frequently disturbed by the passing of boats. 



The lockman kindly volunteered his assistance in gathering speci- 

 mens, and in the course of conversation, informed me that it was 

 quite as abundant when he first came to the Locks five years ago as 

 at the present time, although the reservoirs had been cleaned out 

 once or twice during that period. He further informed me, that he 

 had formerly resided at Foxton Locks, and that the reservoirs there 

 were " full of it more than twenty years back," also that it had been 

 plentiful in the Market Harborough Canal during the whole of that 

 period. A short time after this conversation took place, two labour- 

 ers belonging to the Locks came up; both of them confirmed the state- 

 ment of its being plentiful in the Market Harborough Canal, and one 

 of them added, that the "Welford Branch," a narrow canal, compa- 

 ratively little used, was so full of it that the passage of boats was im- 

 peded, and the canal necessitated to be cleared out once or twice a 

 year, and that it had been so for many years. 



How very remarkable that for so long a period this plant, by 

 no means an inconspicuous one, in widely separated localities, should 

 with the single exception of Berwickshire, have totally escaped the 

 notice of botanists ! 



As it may be a temptation to some botanist to visit the locality, I 

 will just add, the Locks are situate little more than half a mile from 

 the Crick Station of the London and North Western Railway, on the 

 Coventry side. The canal crosses the turnpike-road at a short dis- 

 tance from the station-gates, and by following its course for little 

 more than half a mile the Locks would be reached. Several patches 

 of Anacharis occur in the canal by the waste ground adjoining the 

 Railway Station, intermingled with Potamogeton pectinatus and 

 others, amongst them the little-known P. zosteraceus, which is also 

 abundant between the Locks and Crick Tunnel. P. zostersefolius and 

 compressus occur in the upper reservoir ; and in a rivulet near it 

 grows Ranunculus circinatus, &c. 



The best time for visiting the locality is towards the latter end of 

 August; when I visited the spot on the 13th of that month, the plant 

 had not nearly reached its maximum of flowering. 



Thomas Kirk. 



Coventry, July 22, 1850. 



