7
re-introductions. He said it was also in
several other Forest ponds. Indeed, records
now show that it is spreading all over the
country.
It is not mentioned in older floras, but is
included in Keble Martin (1969 edition), the
third edition of Flora of the British Isles
(Clapham, Tutin and Moore, 1987) and the new
Illustrated Flora by Blarney and Grey-Wilson
(1989). The last authors include a small
illustration, the only one we know, and give it
the English name of 'curly water-thyme'.
Neither H. N. Ridley, who first described it in
1887 as a variety of the smaller L. muscoides,
nor C. E. Moss, who made it into a species,
mention that the leaves all curl back stiffly
and regularly, and the type specimen in the
Natural History Museum does not show this
feature clearly. Perhaps British plants
belong to a clone specially selected for
aquarium use because of its attractive habit.
Frances Perry has given details of one route of
introduction in her Hater Gardening (3rd
edition, 1961), telling how Perry's Enfield
nursery obtained it in 1906 from 'Henkel of
Darmstadt' (probably a nursery firm), who had
it in turn from 'Hansen' (possibly another
nurseryman or collector) of Klerksdorp, near
Johannesburg in the Transvaal, after which they
sold it all over the country.
The illustration shows a habit sketch of an old
stem with roots and leafy shoots, albeit of a