54 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



in it include, besides many seeds not yet determined, the 

 Arctic Willow and Birch, and with these are associated great 

 numbers of a little crustacean Lepidurus or Apus, 1 which is 

 now confined as a living form to the freshwater pools of 

 Spitzbergen and Greenland, only thawed during the brief 

 summer of these Arctic lands. It is manifest that this lake 

 in Fife was silted up or drained at a time when an Arctic 

 climate still reigned over Scotland." 



Mr. Clement Reid has since determined the seeds referred 

 to, and says of them : " There is no special remark to be 

 made about the Dronachy plants, except that they are Arctic 

 and almost the same set as was found at Corstorphine " ; 

 and has added two more species of Arctic Willows, viz. Sati.r 

 retictilaris and Salix polaris, the last being now extinct in 

 Britain. 



A number of the mosses found associated with the 

 Arctic Willows in this old lake deposit were submitted by 

 Mr. Clement Reid to Mr. Mitten, who thus reports on them : 

 " The Dronachy lot have species which are here subalpine, 

 but go very far north, and are there at sea-level. Aulacomnion 

 turgidum is now a rare species, with its most southern stations 

 that I know of in Scotland, where it has not been long 

 known. DisticJiimn capillaceum occurs as far south with us 

 as South Wales, but is common in Alpine regions everywhere, 

 going very far indeed into the Arctic regions. The bulk of 

 the broken fragments seem to be made up of bits of the 

 ubiquitous bog species Amblystegium fluitans. 



To the animals also additions have been made. A little 

 brown skullcap-like thing, fringed on one edge with short 

 hair-like spines, was recognised by Mr. Scott as the headpiece 

 of a spider which Mr. Evans has referred to the genus Erigone, 

 And. in Sav. This the Rev. O. P. Cambridge confirmed, and 

 suggested that if the palpi were found there would be no 

 difficulty in making out the species. Additions have also 

 been made to the crustaceans that once lived in this old 

 Arctic lake. Three or four different forms of the epipha or 

 winter eggs of the genus DapJmia, indicating as many species, 

 have been found in the brown silt along with the Arctic 

 plant leaves and the Apns remains. One seems identical with 



1 Lepidurus glacialis. 



