RARER FLOWERS OF EAST RENFREWSHIRE. 53 



series of puny cascades and yourself so secluded that you could 

 easily imagine yourself nature's last man. 



The cascades and linns of this fairy stream are filled with the 

 narrow-leaved water-parsnip (Stum angustifolium), not a pretty 

 plant by any means, but an exceedingly rare one here in the 

 West. It is very late in flowering, and it only flowers in favour- 

 able seasons. It is an east country plant, not common even there, 

 and how it has come here is a puzzle. But here it is, and thriving 

 famously. 



Descend the stream from Commore Dam till it crosses the road 

 towards Loch Libo ("loch of the cows"). Half a mile or so up this 

 road our eyes are feasted on a magnificent bed of masterwort 

 (Peucedanum Ostruthiuni) containing dozens of plants flowering 

 freely every season. There is a small bed of the same plant near 

 what used to be the Peesvveep Inn, and there are other three 

 stations for it near Paisley. 



Loch Libo. — Loch Libo gives us a fair number of good plants 

 — the mace-reed {Typha latifolia), water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa), 

 white and yellow water-lilies (Nymphcea alba and Nuphar luted), 

 and the mare's-tail (Hippuris vulgaris). The typha is an object 

 of almost superstitious awe to the natives hereabout. Popular 

 local belief attributes to it roots fearfully and wonderfully made 

 — going down deep into the bowels of the solid earth or through 

 them; and the flooding of the pit with workings underneath the 

 loch is believed to have resulted from a rash collier's tearing down 

 one of these colossal roots which interfered with his work. The 

 flooding is a melancholy fact; but, as not a man escaped, it is 

 somewhat difficult to understand how such definite information 

 as to the immediate cause was obtained. 



The water-hemlock is pretty common here. It is but an 

 ordinary looking umbelliferous plant, very poisonous and very 

 hollow in the stem; but there is one noteworthy point about it 

 — its chambered rhizome or root — the only root of the kind in 

 the whole British flora. 



But the poet's flower, the lily, the white water-lily, the queen 

 of our waters, prime favourite of Flora, and first of all our beautiful 

 wildings for elegance of shape and rich purity of colour, may fairly 

 claim the loch as her own domain. One derivation of Loch 



