1909-10.] Flora of Scottish Lakes. 159 



abundant at this marsh, particularly Hypnum cuspidatum, Hylocomium 

 squarrosum, Mnium rostratum, and Marchantia polymorpha. The following 

 plants were abundant in the water : — Chara vulgaris, covering an extensive 

 area of the bottom, and C. contraria. Littorella lacustris, Heleocharis 

 acicularis, Potamogeton crispus, P. filiformis, P. pusillus, Myiiophyllum 

 spicatum, Callitriche autumnalis, Ranunculus peltatus, and near the margin 

 a floating form of R. hederaceus. Possibly there are other species, but 

 these are all I could discover without a boat. 



Loch Gelly is an oval loch about | mile long, situated at an elevation of 

 851 feet above sea level, 2 miles east of Cowdenbeath, and close to the 

 village of Lochgelly. The loch is surrounded by low hills, which slope 

 gently towards the water, except on the west side, where the country is 

 quite open as far as Cowdenbeath, whilst the effluent passes through a 

 depression of the ground at the east end. The district around is of the 

 agricultural type, with a few acres of rough boggy pasture at the west end 

 of the loch, which was probably a portion of its bottom at a former period. 

 The margins of this shallow loch are so gently inclined, that only in a few 

 places can a boat be brought within 20 feet of the shore because of the 

 shallowness of the water. The sides at the north and east slope gently 

 towards the loch, and are covered with a fine, close grass sward, about which 

 there are a few large deciduous trees. This meadow-land gives place near 

 the waters edge to a narrow shore of dirty sand or gravel, with a few 

 larger stones, but, excepting some patches of Caltha palustris, Ranunculus 

 Flammula, Littorella lacustris, etc., there is little vegetation on these shores. 

 The west shores consist largely of a Phragmites swamp (fig. 95), behind which 

 there is a marsh of varying width, which merges into the area of boggy 

 pasture previously mentioned. Towards the north-west corner, however, 

 about the affluent, the swamp is occupied by a considerable variety of plants 

 an enumeration of which will be given presently. On the drier patches of 

 this portion of the marsh there are bushes of Alnus glutinosa, Salix aurita, 

 etc., and on the better-drained area farther from the loch there is a mixed 

 wood. The south shore has a zone of marsh throughout its length, 

 immediately behind which there is a narrow plantation of conifers, with 

 which are mixed here and there, on the damper spots, alders, poplars, willows, 

 etc. (figs. 95-97). 



For several years this loch was used as the common receptacle for the 

 sewage of the populous mining district around. The inflowing burn at the 

 west end was then an evil-smelling open sewer, 6 or 8 feet wide, consequently 

 the water of the loch was extremely foul, and an examination of the flora 

 was by no means a pleasant occupation. The local sanitary authorities, 



