707 



Market Harborough, in Leicestershire. The plants were all females, 

 and were found in considerable abundance, growing " closely matted 

 together." Miss Kirby had not observed it there before ; and the 

 reservoirs had been cleaned out two years previously. 



Miss Kirby's re-discovery awakened the attention of botanists to the 

 subject ; and Mr. Babington published a description of the plant in 

 the ' Annals of Natural History ' for February, 1848. Dr. Johnston, the 

 first discoverer, on reading Mr. Babington's account, at once recog- 

 nized it as the plant he had found in the loch of Dunse Castle, and 

 in the following autumn found the plant at two stations in the Whit- 

 adder River. 



The same season, but later, it was found by Mr. James Mitchel, 

 in Nottinghamshire, in the Lene (a tributary of the Trent), near Not- 

 tingham, " growing in great profusion for about a quarter of a mile in 

 extent." In November of the same year it was found in Northampton- 

 shire, in the Watford Locks, by Mr. Kirk, " very abundant." The 

 Watford Locks are on the same line of canal as the Foxton Reservoirs. 

 Mr. Kirk observed that, when water was drawn from either of the 

 locks, the force of the current detached small sprigs of the Anacharis, 

 which were carried into the body of the canal. Mr. Kirk considered 

 it to be an introduced plant. His plants were also all female. Sub- 

 sequently, Mr. Kirk changed his views, and regarded the plant (from 

 its simultaneous discovery in so many other localities) as a true native. 

 He also described it as growing in such dense masses that it was 

 with difficulty good-sized specimens could be detached, owing to its 

 extreme brittleness. Mr. Kirk was informed by the lock-man that 

 the plant was quite as abundant when he first came to the locks, five 

 years before, although the reservoirs had been cleaned out once or 

 twice during that period. The lock-man further stated, that he had 

 formerly resided at the 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 labourers 

 belonging to the locks came up ; and both of them confirmed the 

 statement of its being plentiful in the Market-Harborough Canal ; and 

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

 paratively little used, was so full of it that " the passage of boats was 

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

 year, and that it had been so for many years." I apprehend, how- 

 ever, there must be some mistake here. 



In August, 1849, it was found in Derbyshire and StaflPordshire, by 



