Flora of Scottish Lakes. 
69 
1909 - 10 .] 
may possibly be carried on by the writer. It is hoped, however, that 
others may be led by the perusal of these pages to some of the many sites 
enumerated, where Nature seems ready, nay, anxious, to reveal some secret 
to the earnest investigator. 
Although a good many additions have been made to the vice-counties — 
73, 74, 75, 85, 96, and 97 in Topographical Botany — still, no special search 
has been instituted for the purpose of adding records to a county list ; 
at the same time it is frequently shown that comparatively rare species 
occur at many of the lochs in great abundance. As a general rule, I have 
only been able to visit each loch once, sometimes working over three or 
four small ones in a day ; at other times spending two, three, or more days 
at one large loch. Thus have I not only been obliged to ignore seasonal 
changes, but have conducted the work almost irrespective of weather, 
although wind or rain seriously handicaps one.* Under such circumstances 
some plants have probably been overlooked. It will therefore be readily 
understood that I am not prepared to say that certain species do not exist 
in certain places, or to refute in any way the records of other botanists. 
Rather the opposite, for I am quite ready to admit the occurrence of plants 
not found in my list in the lochs that have been examined, especially in 
the case of plants that live entirely submersed, even though such may be 
abundant. One has also to remember the comparatively rapid changes 
that may take place in the flora of a loch, particularly amongst the plants 
that seldom occur very plentifully. Again, when the large districts that 
I have gone over in one season are held in contemplation, the most energetic 
of botanists will admit the impossibility of examining with microscopic 
vision, in so short a time, every nook and corner of the margin as well 
as the bottom of every lake visited. Neither is such minute examination 
a necessary concomitant to the wider purposes of the investigation, as 
expressed by the title. Further, the omission of a plant from the list does 
not by any means necessarily imply that it is absent in the Area, but 
merely that I did not find it in abundance at any of the lochs. I have 
simply recorded exactly what I have observed. 
My friend Mr James M‘ Andrew, of Edinburgh, who resided many years 
in Kirkcudbrightshire, and whose discoveries in the geographical distribution 
of plants have so greatly enriched the written records of the flora of this 
and the adjoining counties, especially amongst the Cryptogams, has rendered 
me many services. Naturally he has had opportunities of observation that 
* Those who have not had experience in such or similar boating operations during 
windy weather can scarcely appreciate the difficulty of carrying on the work, even under an 
ordinary stiff breeze. 
