1904 - 5 .] 
Flora of Scottish Lakes. 
1009 
plants at every node, and with an abundance of flowers. Here 
again we have a dominant submerged and flowerless aquatic plant 
produced from plastic, semi-aquatic forms, and now, in its sub- 
merged aquatic state, propagated asexually by offshoots ; still 
retaining, however, within its protoplasm, the subtle powers of 
reproducing sexually that belongs to its semi-aquatic progenitors ; 
so that when removed from its submerged environment, either by 
the accidental subsidence of the water or by overgrowing a muddy 
flat, the latent force is rejuvenised and the plants flower abundantly. 
They retain also the character induced by the submerged environ- 
ment of reproducing by offsets. 
We next visit a series of lochs, many of considerable size, at 
elevations of from 600 feet to 1000 feet above sea level, lying to 
the east of Loch Hess. 
Loch Ashie is 716 feet above sea level on an open moor. It is 
about a mile and a half long, with flat and stony shores (fig. 7 3) 
and rather peaty water. The country on the east side is a bleak 
moor rising gradually from the loch and presenting a dreary 
aspect ; on the west the shores are clothed with coniferous forest. 
Towards the south-west the land has been recently deforested, so 
that this portion is as featureless as the eastern shore. It is very 
poor in plants : the only associations of marsh plants are a few 
colonies of Carex rostrata and C. aquatilis in bays on the east. 
Littorella, Lobelia, and Isoetes occasionally carpet the bottom. 
There are also groups of Sparganium natans, Potamogeton natans, 
P. crispus, P. pusillus, P. perfoliatus, P. lucens, Myriophyllum 
alterniflorum, Juncus fluitans, Fontinalis antipyretica, Hitella 
opaca, and Chara fragilis, var. delicatula. The littoral plants are, 
with the exception of the Carex colonies, limited to a few plants 
here and there of the following: — Equisetum limosum, Caltha 
palustris, Menyanthes trifoliata, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Juncus 
effusus, J. articulatus, J. supinus, var. subverticillatus abundant, 
and Ranunculus Elammula. The larger rocks may have patches 
of Hardus, Scapania, and Zygnema. 
Loch Bunachton is an extremely desolate sheet of water, smaller 
than the last mentioned, but otherwise resembling it in character 
and flora (fig. 74). 
Loch Culcairn is a recent artificial lake, and the water, which 
PROC. ROY. SOC. EDIN. — VOL. XXV. 64 
