Flora of Scottish Lakes. 
159 
1909-10.] 
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. filiform is, P. pusillus, Myriophyllum 
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 Geliy is an oval loch about J mile long, situated at an elevation of 
351 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 water's 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, 
