Flora of Scottish Lakes. 
161 
1909-10.] 
effluent, and a small submersed form of Alisma Plantago, growing in 18 
inches of water, with delicate linear-lanceolate leaves floating on the surface, 
and linear submerged ones. 
The chief plants of the marshy zone along the south shore are — Equise- 
tum limosum, Carex rostrata, C. Goodenovii, Heleocharis palustris, Iris 
Pseud-acorus, Phalaris arundinacea, Spirsea Ulmaria, Comarum palustre, 
Caltha palustris, Juncus eflusus, etc., all of which grow luxuriantly (figs. 96 
and 97). 
Burntisland Reservoir is a very irregularly shaped sheet of water about 
J mile long, situated amidst picturesque surroundings 1J miles north of 
Aberdour, at an elevation of 290 feet above sea level, and lying between the 
hills of Dunearn, Balcam, and Cullalo. It was formed by the construction 
of a short dam at the south-west end, where the maximum depth of 39 feet 
occurs. Upon the south side, the loose rock and soil have been protected 
by stonework, which in most places enters the water. Excepting a few 
lichens and Bryophytes, no vegetation occurs either along this wall or at 
the dam, but at other parts of the loch, marginal vegetation is generally 
abundant. The shores, where bare of plants, are either gravelly or muddy, 
and the water, which is not peaty, has a slightly turbid appearance due to 
the somewhat impure water of one of the affluents, and to the erosion of the 
muddy shore by the waves. These matters, however, are about to receive 
attention from the authorities at Burntisland who own the reservoir, and 
the proposed alterations will, I fear, eradicate a number of interesting plants 
from this locality. About the affluent at the east end there is a considerable 
extent of marsh, which, near the water, is covered with Equisetum limosum 
and Heleocharis palustris. From this place to about the middle of the loch, 
where there is a large bay, the flat shore, which is usually exposed in the 
summer by the falling of the water level, is sandy or muddy, and is covered 
with vegetation. Littorella lacustris grows out of the water and for some 
distance up the shore. Then there is a broad zone of Heleocharis palustris, 
with which a few other species of plants are mixed. Above that a narrow 
strip of Spiraea Ulmaria grows at the winter water level, and behind the 
Spiraea there is a luxuriant grass meadow (fig. 98). The Spiraea, as is 
usually the case with the Rosaceae, is a gross feeder, and grows uncommonly 
well along this line, because the storms of winter deposit a supply of rich 
detrital matter at that place. Similar conditions to those just described 
for this piece of shore also prevail along the east side of the bay previously 
mentioned. The wide zone of Heleocharis is cut every summer, and dried 
for use as bedding for cattle, but chiefly in order to prevent the dead stems 
being washed into the loch during winter, as the decay of so large a quantity 
vol. xxx. 11 
