Z A N N IC H E L L IA palustris.
Horned Pondweed.
M0N0EC1A Monandria.
Gen. Char. Male, Cal. none. Cor. none. Stam.
Filament solitary, elongated, erect: anther ovate,
erect. Female, Cal. of 1 leaf. Cor. none. Germens
4 or more. Seeds as many, stalked. Stigmas peltate.
Spec. Char. Anther of four cells. Stigmas entire.
Syn. Zannichellia palustris. Linn. Sp. PI. 1375. Sm.
FI. Brit. 955. Huds. 397- With. 6. Hull. 202.
Relh. 358. Sibth. 3.
Aponogeton aquaticum graminifolium, staminibus sin-
gularibus. Rail Syn. 135.
M i c h e l i named this genus in honour of a Venetian apothecary,
whom he greatly celebrates for his knowledge and
zeal with regard to natural history, especially marine plants
and animals. He describes two species, one of which only
has been met with in Britain.
This is an annual plant, occurring in ponds and ditches, as
in Tothill fields and many other places, in the summer season,
floating in the water, but rising to the surface when in
blossom. Stem threadshaped, slender, repeatedly branched,
smooth, leafy. Leaves opposite or somewhat whorled, linear,
narrow, acute,' entire, grassy. Bractea axillary, tubular,
membranous, including a pair of flowers; the male consisting
of a long stamen and 4-celled anther, without calyx or
corolla; the female of an oblique bell-shaped calyx, on a
stalk, with 4 or 5 stalked, oblong, compressed germens,
rugged or toothed at their backs. Styles short. Stigmas
peltate, dilated, with entire edges.
The other species, found in mountain ponds, is described
by Micheli as having toothed stigmas, and, what is much
more remarkable, an anther with only two cells. Such a
difference would in most cases be sufficient to afford a generic
distinction, but here it is evidently only a specific one. See
remarks on this subject in Introduction to Botany, 362.