Flora of Scottish Lakes. 
163 
1909-10.] 
Veronica scutellata, V. Beccabunga, Cnicus palustris, Sagina nodosa, Bartsia 
Odontites, Stachys palustris, Deschampsia csespitosa, Achillea Ptarmica, 
Scutellaria galericulata, Gnaphalium uliginosum, Grimmia apocarpa, var. 
rivularis, Eurhynchium rusciforme, Bryum argenteum, Hypnum cuspidatum, 
H. riparium, etc. This a long list of plants for a small loch of comparatively 
recent formation, and it will be noticed that the greater number of species 
are those of the marsh zone. A considerable number of water-fowl resort 
to this reservoir, and they are doubtless responsible for the introduction of 
so many plants, which, moreover, find the shores a suitable habitat. 
Scutellaria galericulata, for instance, is not a common plant at the lochs of 
Fife, but in marshy ground, adjoining the seashore, about 2 miles south- 
west of Aberdour, it grows in great abundance, and possibly it was trans- 
ported from there to the reservoir by gulls, etc. 
On the top of Balcam Hill, which adjoins this reservoir, there is a small 
pool about 12 yards long, containing over twenty species of aquatic and 
marsh plants, two of which, namely Glyceria fluitans and Potamogeton 
natans, do not occur in the reservoir below. 
Otterston Loch is a small shallow sheet of water, 2 miles west of 
Aberdour. It is closed in by low hills and is entirely surrounded by 
luxuriant deciduous trees, which also cover a small island in the middle. 
The water is not peaty, and, although clear, it has a dead, stagnant appear- 
ance. The loch is an ornamental sheet of water to Otterston House, which 
stands upon its north side, whilst the public road from Aberdour adjoins it 
on the north-east. Except on the west side, where there is an extensive 
and treacherous bog, the loch is bordered nearly everywhere by low walls 
or grassy banks (figs. 100-102), so that there is practically no shore, but in 
several places marsh vegetation overgrows the banks. At the west end 
the mud at the bottom is deep, black, and fetid ; at the east end there is 
much less mud, and there some parts of the margin are sandy, or a narrow 
zone of stones may even occur (fig. 102). Ceratophyllum demersum is so 
abundant that the loch is almost choked with it, and in summer, when the 
plants are at the surface, the manipulation of a boat over the water is a 
matter of some difficulty. Doubtless many plants that otherwise would 
thrive in this loch are excluded by the Ceratophyllum, which appears to be 
gradually extending, for I have noticed that Ranunculus Baudotii, which 
was abundant at the east side of the loch in 1903, had in 1908 become 
almost extinct by the extension of the Ceratophyllum. The latter, how- 
ever, is not able to hold its own in the marginal zone against the Polygonum 
amphibium which grows there (figs. 100 and 101), possibly for two reasons. 
(1) The Ceratophyllum is favoured by water of some depth, to the bottom 
