224 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



accident as mere weeds, clinging to the tubers or roots 

 of imported food-plants. Somewhat different is the case 

 of ornamental blossoms like the mimulus, originally 

 planted in flower-gardens, but now fairly established as 

 an escape in boggy or marshy ground. Of these hand- 

 somer straylings we have several acclimatised varieties ; 

 but they do not spread like the regular weeds, nor have 

 they the same strength of constitution which enables the 

 claytonia and the Michaelmas daisy to compete success- 

 fully with the old-established weeds of cultivation in 

 southern Europe. 



Even more interesting, however, than these aliens, 

 which owe their introduction directly or indirectly to 

 man, are the real natural colonists from America, which 

 are found sparingly in many places along our exposed 

 western coasts, from the Hebrides to Cornwall. Many 

 of them, no doubt, have been acclimatised in Britain 

 long before the discovery of America by the Spaniards ; 

 for all the evidence goes to suggest that their seeds must 

 have been carried across the Atlantic by the agency of 

 sea-birds, or must have been wafted over in the crevices 

 of drift-wood, or must have been washed ashore by the 

 favouring current of the Gulf Stream. For example, 

 in the lakes and tarns of the Isle of Skye, Coll, and the 

 outer Hebrides, as well as in the shallow loughs of Con- 

 nemara and Kerry, a slender graceful water-plant with 

 pellucid leaves grows abundantly over the soft mud, and 

 forms a tufted waving carpet above the smooth shining 

 bottom, with its white jointed fibres and grass-like 

 blades. This pretty weed belongs to a family other- 

 wise wholly unrepresented in Europe, but common 

 in all the still waters of America. Clearly, from the 



