1 905-1906.] The " Water-Flea " Scare in our City. 267 



Carex Irevigata. The flowers of the carices are neither 

 fragrant nor bright-coloured. They yield no honey, as they 

 have no perfume. They require no visitors for cross- 

 fertilisation, and so they produce nothing to attract a visit. 

 The wind is the pollen-carrier, and of all winds a dry gentle 

 breeze is best. If the wind be charged with moisture, the 

 pollen becomes soaked, and, carried down to the ground, the 

 purpose of its existence is baffled. Again, if the wind be 

 violent the pollen is apt to be whirled away, so that little of 

 it reaches its natural goal. But when the wind is soft and 

 steady, such as the summer evening breeze, which just stirs 

 the leaves of the trees into a sibilant whisper, or ripples the 

 corn of the fields into golden wavelets, then the pollen rises 

 like a dust-cloud that gradually distributes itself over an ever- 

 widening area, and many plants are fertilised. The stigmas 

 ripen at a different time from the anthers to obviate side- 

 marriages. Aliens have found their way out to our district, 

 — such as Echinospermum lappula, with tiny blue flowers, and 

 Amsinckia lycopsioides, with blooms of a lovely orange. 

 These are a few of the rarer plants occurring in our district. 

 But what a pleasure was associated with the finding of them ! 

 Hours in the open air, with the blue sky overhead and the 

 sunshine touching all with gold, and the thrill of joy in dis- 

 covering something never found before, and which, the more 

 closely it is examined, reveals new features of interest and 

 new subjects for wonder. 



Y.—THE "WATER-FLEA" SCARE TN OUR CITY. 

 By Mr JOHN LINDSAY. 



(Read Feb. 28, 1906.) 



For the past few weeks the citizens of Edinburgh have been 

 constantly provided by the daily press with paragraphs and 

 letters and editorials — generally alarming, though now and 

 then reassuring — as to the condition of the city water-supply. 

 Not a little of what has been written on this subject is, of 



